Dancing in the Pale Light
by shizune
Summary: Luna always knew reality was a fragile thing. That was what made it so sharp...
1. What Is and What Should Never Be

Nothing here belongs to me.

Big Luna fan, big time travel fan, wanted to see if they could mix and match. Hopefully, I'll be able to keep writing this.

* * *

Victory could be a very empty feeling, Hermione thought to herself. And the longer and harder fought for the victory was, the less triumphant it felt at the end.

But then, if they had more than a paltry party to celebrate with, maybe things would seem brighter. Or if they had less blood on their hands.

Harry meeting Voldemort was supposed to be the end of the war, not the end of the prologue to the war. While their side had certainly suffered losses before that fight, compared to what happened after the fact, those weren't quite so bad...

Harry had defeated Voldemort, and that was supposed to finish it. The Death Eaters were supposed to once more go into hiding and try to buy their ways off.

Instead, Lucius Malfoy had killed the Boy-Who-Won, and the war had been kicked off in earnest. And while victory had come to the side of light and justice, eventually, the cost had been far too high. From what Hermione had been able to tell, there were exactly seventeen adult witches and wizards left in the country. Of which exactly two had been heavily involved in the fighting, and Hermione knew that her own role on the front lines hadn't approached the other's.

The blood on her hands and her mind didn't come close to the blood staining Luna's.

And Hermione was going to ask her to do something to fix both of them. She had to, because she knew that this world wasn't worth living in.

* * *

"Luna? Are you here?" Hermione pushed her way into her friend's childhood home, eyes adjusting to the dimly lit room. "I found something in my research, but.. Are you here?"

Out of the corner of her eye, Hermione saw movement, and went towards it. On the dusty, dirty couch – which very much matched the dusty, dirty room as a room – a blonde-haired witch stirred, looking even paler than she had during her school days. In the six months since the end of the war, Hermione knew Luna had not been taking care of herself. She was rather worried her friend had decided to go see all those she had lost without waiting for it to come naturally.

Well, that was why Hermione was here, even if it wasn't quite the same.

"Hermione?" came the typically dreamy voice, though it held tired overtones. Luna was sitting up now, looking at her visitor. "What is it?"

Hermione sat down on the chair, not waiting for an invitation that wouldn't come anytime soon, most likely. "You know what I was looking into, right?"

"Fixing the unfixable, mending our hearts... You said you found something?"

"Well, I did. I found a spell that might work, but it requires two things.." Hermione looked rather apprehensive at these words, but Luna was starting to look just a little brighter.

"A sacrifice to cast it for you? You know I will, of course, if that's what has to be done..." Luna offered her own life far too gladly, Hermione decided. Especially considering the other part...

"...You have to be the subject of the spell, Luna. I will cast it, if you'll just agree to help."

"Me? Why can't you be the one to go there? I'd rather go on, if one of us must." Luna sounded rather insistent, but Hermione put a stop to that.

"The spell... it sends the subject to their most traumatic experience. It was made to stop that from happening, and mine... is too late to help." Ron had been killed in the last fight of the war, and Harry far too late. Hermione wasn't certain to which she would go, but either one was after where she wanted to be.

Luna, however, looked far too bright now. "You mean... mother? I could.."

And yet, Hermione had to crush Luna's hopes once more. "...I'm sorry, Luna. That part of the spell was a failure, in the attempt I found – the subject arrived just in time to see things, but without enough time to change them. It might be different for you, but..."

"...I'll just see her leave without me again, and it might be much longer before I see her." Luna was suddenly far less enthusiastic about the prospect.

"It's a chance to save our world, Luna, to make sure that there will be others to follow us!" Hermione wasn't sure that she believed Luna's ideas on what was beyond, but she had to make an appeal that would work on someone who held them. And so, she did.

"Follow us? There won't ever be a child to follow me." Luna stared at her hands, and sighed softly. "But one for them, and you... Would be nice. If I changed things... if the blood never happened, do you think I could forget it?"

"I'm sure of it. ...Would you like to proceed today, or is there something you want to do, first?"

Luna answered with a long, silent stare, and a nod. It wasn't a very specific answer, but Hermione knew just what she meant.

"Fine. Fine. So..." Hermione began drawing runes upon the ground, using the only ink nature and a knife could provide.

* * *

At 4:03 PM, on April 9th, 2001, Luna Lovegood's place of residence collapsed. No remains were ever found, and both she and Hermione Granger were added to the rather extensive list of missing persons in Great Britain. 


	2. A Front Row Seat

Still not mine. However, it may amuse some that Open Office's spell check believes that "Dumbledore" should be "Wimbledon".

* * *

Hermione, much to her own surprise, regained consciousness. She had rather expected to be dead; generally, performing a spell that required the caster's life as part of the cost did that. And yet, something didn't quite feel right...

"Luna, what are you doing in here?" A somehow familiar voice asked, seemingly in her direction, and Hermione tried to turn to it... Yet, somehow, things weren't moving right. Her eyes opened, as though compelled, and Hermione saw.

Hermione saw a blond woman, seeming very, very tall, who looked like an older, and much happier, version of Luna. The woman took up the center of her view, but behind her was a cauldron, brewing hot green. In spite of the question, which clearly this woman had asked, she had a rather clear smile on her face, obviously happy to see her daughter. And just where, Hermione wondered, was Luna, anyway?

And then... Hermione felt herself speak. "Mummy, I just wanted to see you! What are you doing?" And yet, her voice... What, exactly, was going on? She was in Luna's body, that was clear enough, but that was definitely the original version of Luna, or she'd be stopping the tragedy that was getting ready to occur, in whatever form it was going to. And Hermione could do nothing.

It occurred to her that, were she about to be a passenger in Luna's life, unable to affect anything, that she might indeed be dead and in a very personal Hell. Hearing about Ron's death had been bad enough, but having to be the one on the scene... Well.

Luna's mother, doomed as she might be, was cheerful enough in spite of that, and answering her child's question. "Well, Luna, it's a potion to help with our Dancing. We can't go and Dance just anywhere right now, and this is to help with that problem."

Hermione was just beginning to consider this rather odd turn of phrase when her attention was drawn elsewhere, for the potion had begun making a rather terrifying hissing sound...

A light, a blast, pain. The cauldron shattered; a splinter of it drove through Luna's mother's chest. The woman landed in front of her daughter, twitching a few times before going still. Hermione felt herself – Luna – crawl over in spite of her own pains, in spite of an odd and slick feeling on all sides. "...Mummy..? Wake up, please!" she cried, desperately, tears starting to fill her eyes, even as the silvery potion that had drenched and stuck to the both of them worked into her skin...

* * *

In a moment of great personal tragedy, one theory holds, a person's spirit dies and is reborn in some new form. It is at this moment that the spell used by Hermione takes full hold, though in an unfortunately cruel twist, the modifications meant to allow that tragedy to be changed instead allow the participants in the spell to re witness what they had intended to prevent.

As Luna knelt, the potion soaking into her skin, Hermione worried. Would that potion prove toxic, or otherwise damaging?

"No... It'll do exactly what it was meant to do, Hermione."

What? Hermione thought, as she felt Luna's body answer the question she'd asked in her mind.

"You heard me.. Can't you hear my thoughts, too? Yours are clear as day. Oh.. Mother." In spite of this being the older Luna, her reaction to her mother's body were exactly the same as those of her counterpart. Hermione couldn't help but feeling as though she was intruding.

"I... I did apologize for what happened with him, you know. With Ronald. And with the others, but especially him. But even if you don't blame me, I always knew it was my own fault." Luna, cradling her mother's head in her tiny arms, attempted once more, an old argument, brought on this time by Hermione's earlier thoughts on living through Luna's life as a motion picture.

Hermione knew it wasn't Luna's fault; Luna refused to accept that it wasn't, and so it always went. It was hard to blame Luna for continuing to feel that way; even if she'd had no way to know what was happening. Still, that event had shattered her final friend's spirit, and Hermione truly believed that had that not been in the final battle of the war, Luna would not have survived the next.

Footsteps approached; a man came. Luna ran to him, Hermione once more a passenger for a reunion as Luna cried out, "Oh, Daddy! Mummy.. won't get up." and hugged the man's knees. "Sw.. sweety?" said the man, as he sat down beside of the corpse.

Neither Luna nor her father spoke for a long time, or moved much, not even to clean the potion off Luna or her mother's body. Eventually, Molly Weasley, who had scheduled tea with Luna's mother, came in and found them, and the gears of life began to move.

* * *

There were tears, many of them, though none Luna's, and eventually a small funeral with distant relatives and friends. And at this funeral was a great man, one who had gotten used to not attending quite so many funerals in recent years. As it happens, this great man had a reputation, among other things, for being very good with children, and so it was that he was cornered at this funeral by one of the family friends.

"Really, Professor Dumbledore, she hasn't said a word to anyone, other than herself since it happened. And when you look into her eyes... The healers looked over her, and they're not sure what effect that potion might have had on her, but she's fine physically aside from the eye color. I don't think she's even cried. If you can at least talk to her, it might help." Molly Weasley continued her argument long past the point of convincing Dumbledore, who offered the motherly witch a smile.

"Very well, Molly, I will try my best with her." And so he did, visiting with the daughter of the deceased immediately after this conversation. Unfortunately, THAT conversation was far less decisive, for in visiting with young Luna, Albus Dumbledore found himself more than a little confused. Which was not something that was supposed to happen to him, and even when it did, it was normally delightful.

In this case, it was a little disturbing.

Luna and her mother had been distant relatives of the headmaster. There was nothing unusual about that; Dumbledore was related in one way or another to quite a large percentage of the pure blooded and half blooded wizards and witches in Great Britain. Luna's mother, Terra, had kept in touch after graduating Hogwarts, though she'd been mum on this most recent research project. However, Dumbledore had a family picture of the Lovegoods, and in that picture, and all other pictures of her Dumbledore had seen, Luna Lovegood's eyes had been a brilliant green.

Molly had mention the change, but it was still more than a little disturbing to see the pale silvery eyes on the girl, and the look in those eyes... Dumbledore hadn't quite been able to place it, at first.

"Hello, young Luna," he said, gravely, though his eyes twinkled at her. "My deepest condolences on your loss. Yet, you must remember that she is not lost forever, merely gone on the next great adventure, and so you shall be reunited on that path, some day."

At that, the girl had looked up at him, making eye contact and replying softly, "Thank you, Professor Dumbledore." It was, perhaps, no surprise that she had known just who he was; he was, after all, rather famous. But she seemed rather familiar about it, somehow, and with the eye contact offered... Well, it was a chance to try and help the poor girl.

Slipping into her mind was easy, of course, but once he was there... Dumbledore had never encountered such a chaotic mind. Images swirled, connected, and vanished before he could even begin to understand them. However, he had a great sense of blood, and pain, and red and silver, and he was beginning to develop a nasty headache. And suddenly, he realized where he had seen the set of Luna's eyes before.

On many of the best aurors in their prime, on many of the Death Eaters who had been brought to trial and refused to surrender their colleagues, on Alastor Moody and Tom Riddle, Albus Dumbledore had seen that look before. It was the look of someone who had killed enough people to do damage to their own spirit. It was not a look that a nine year old witchling should have on her face.

Albus smiled down at the witch, hiding his own troubled feelings towards her behind his nature as a kindly old man. "Miss Lovegood, I do look forward to having you at school; I think you'll be.. most remarkable." And with that, he hurried off to talk to the girl's father.

She was too late in the year to consider bumping up to the next year's starting class; that wide an age gap would never do. But he could get Molly to keep an eye on the family, and he could watch Miss Lovegood once she arrived at his school. He had the feeling she would need it.

* * *

Luna watched the headmaster head off, mixed emotions in her heart and a rather shrill know-it-all in her head. She did love Hermione, just as she'd loved all of those who had since left her and now just might be returned, but being stuck with the older girl in her head was still sometimes quite frustrating. Now was one of those times.

"Why did you let him in? What if he had found me, or evidence of what you were doing?" At least Hermione had learned to screen her thoughts and only send the ones she wanted to Luna. Hearing every thought of her friend had been rather obnoxious. Still, the inability for Luna to send thought back in kind was also very limiting; Luna wasn't concerned about what other people said about her, but talking to the voices in your head out loud constantly after being found soaked in an unknown potion would end with her locked in Saint Mungo's psychiatric ward for the next few years, which wouldn't do any good for anyone.

"I never learned to block it. Never needed to; people just can't keep up with a well enough ordered mind, you know!"

"Fine," Hermione's thoughts replied – and they sounded like a Hermione, just behind her and speaking. to Luna - "but now what are you going to do? You don't even have a wand. How are you going to help with Quirrell?"

"Now? I wait, and I try not to draw too much attention, and I play with Ginny and try to enjoy it and make better friends... I can't take care of everything, after all, and that works out just fine. If I deal with all Harry's problems, he'll never become stronger..." Luna tilted her head, ignorant of the odd look she was getting from a nearby witch. "Have you figured out what will happen when we meet yourself yet?"

"No, and I don't think there's any way to be sure, other than waiting and seeing. It's going to be a long couple of years."

* * *

While it might be, I'm not certain how much of it I'll show, and I may well decide to skip straight to Luna and Ginny's first year. Where will Luna end up sorted? What will happen when Luna and Hermione's spirit meet the flesh and blood Hermione? ...Good question, but that's for a future chapter to say. 


	3. The Untossed Coin

Still not mine. OpenOffice spell check of the day: Voldemort is a misspelled Democrat.

Time passed, as it generally does, and soon enough it was a date that Hermione remembered quite well, the day that Harry, Ron, and herself had started at Hogwarts. And yet, she had not yet gotten Luna to tell her of any plans in assisting with the Sorcerer's Stone and Voldemort. Luna had avoided visiting the Weasleys since her return to the past, and while Hermione appreciated her reasons for wanting to stay away, helping Ron somehow was the best method for interceding until Luna started Hogwarts herself.

"You," Luna's voice rang out in the otherwise unoccupied kitchen, where she was making a small lunch, "are leaking again, Hermione. Did you know that nargles make certain that their children face at least one predator in their first year, while they look on in secret? I always thought of that as a skillful approach to parenting..."

'And you think that the three of us are nargles, to be taught through survival?' Hermione thought, with a touch of annoyance. 'What was the point of doing this, then, if not to change things, to spare Harry the pain he had to go through?'

"Keeping everyone else I love alive. Even if I stop Him from returning, the Death Eaters will eventually rise up around someone else. If I do everything, you all won't be able to defend yourself, and it all worked out the last time, at least for a couple more years... If I do anything, someone might get killed who wasn't last time, and it might not be someone who I want to have die."

'A couple more years? Then...'

"...If she hadn't been possessed, she wouldn't have been the woman we knew. It hurt, but it made her better, in the end. I'll keep an eye on it, but..."

'That's horrible! You know what that did to her, and you're just going to let it happen? I understand why, but will you really be able to sit there and not stop it, Luna?'

"I have to. If I chance changing that, who knows what worse thing might happen instead?"

* * *

Summer changed to Autumn, and to Winter. Now that Ronald was at school, Luna began visiting the Weasleys once more. Seeing Ginny again, and being reminded of how her closest friend – at least prior to Hermione taking up residence in one of the dusty corners of her mind, which was a different sort of close – had been as a child... Well, Luna thought, it made her decision to allow that girl's innocence to be crushed both harder and easier. This Ginny was a flighty, talkative creature, though very nice to Luna as she'd always been. 

It was Ginny who had first said something to Luna about her habit of talking to herself. Which was quite necessary for communicating with Hermione, as Luna had begun answering before Hermione had shouted her down in her mind.

Upon contemplation, Luna had to agree that being locked in Saint Mungo's Mental Damage ward would not be a productive way to alter the future, as it would mostly have the effect of leaving Harry with no interview in the Quibbler, and presuming that did not undo him, would leave them one person short at the Ministry. More than that, should no one think of using Thestrals to get there. Probably not the positive effect she was going for with the plan.

Still, calling Hermione an imaginary friend had rather hurt, and the later conversation with Hermione about how she would have to bend the truth in the future did as well.

It was a fine day in early June when Luna received some rather horrifying news while at Ginny's, not quite matching up with what she was expecting. While she knew, thanks to Hermione, that the time had come and gone for three of her friends to have their first, great brush with death, what she heard when she came to visit for the first time after that event was not quite right.

"...They thought he might die, at first, but he pulled through.." Ginny said, still looking worried about it. "It was some sort of puzzle set up by Snape, he said, and he and H.. Harry just guessed at it. Dumbledore found Ron in time, thankfully, but it was much too close."

'What happened to me? Oh, I hope they're friends with me still!' Rang Hermione's thoughts through Luna's head, but Luna ignored them for the moment, trying to work out how she changed things.

"So.. Ronald and Harry Potter went through some obstacle course by themselves..?" Luna asked Ginny, sipping at her tea.

"Oh, them and another friend, but their other friend was injured before that. Not as badly, she was out of the hospital wing before I got to visit Ron, but she got beat up by a statue or something. Of course, Harry was the real hero! But Ron did a good thing, too, I'll have to be nice to him for a while, once he finishes recovering. Mum says he might be weak from the poison for a while."

Luna shut her eyes, and said to herself – and her 'imaginary' friend - "I can't think of what I did... But I need to."

Ginny gave Luna a Look – even without looking, Luna could tell – and said "What did you say?"

"Oh, it doesn't matter. Ronald will be fine, and this time next year, we'll be the ones at Hogwarts, right?"

"Right!"

But Luna remained troubled about the evident change, and spent the next several weeks trying to remember what she'd done differently that might have altered what happened with the Stone. And eventually, she came to a troubling conclusion: She'd done nothing that should have. Random chance, perhaps, had just fallen a different way this time.

That was worrying, but even more worrying was another question. How much random chance had been involved in no one dying to the basilisk? Not that she intended to bring that up to Hermione.

* * *

Ginny Weasley was having one of the greatest days of her life, as nervous as she currently was. For she was starting at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, at long last. While she'd been unable to find Ron and Harry to join them on the train, she did sit with Fred, George, and Luna. 

The trip across the lake had be glorious, taking a boat with Luna and two other girls Ginny didn't know, and Ginny was now standing and talking with Luna as they waited to be sorted. Ginny did hope that Luna would be in Gryffindor with her; while the other girl had gone very, very weird since her mother's death, she was still a friend and Ginny would love to know at least one of her roommates.

Ginny looked over at the Gryffindor table, frowning. Where WERE Harry and Ron, anyway? She couldn't see them, and she was sure they hadn't been on the train... Even if they missed it, Mum and Dad could have Side-Alonged them by now.

"Lovegood, Luna!" rang out through the hall, and her friend's name made her return her attention to the ceremony. Luna strided towards the stool, looking far more determined than usual, and placed the hat on her head...

...And sat there, nothing happening. Ginny continued to watch as Luna sat there, unmoving, a far-away expression on her face, and time passed.

There was a cough, to the side, and people were beginning to fidget. "Maybe she's a squib,"said someone off to her left, getting Ginny to turn rather angrily towards the source of the voice. Before she could confront the rather tactless person, however, she was interrupted by a scream, a scream of rage and pain.

Turning towards that, Ginny was more than a little surprised to see that it was the Sorting Hat. The Headmaster was standing up, concern on his face, and now Ginny was getting quite worried about what precisely was happening with her friend, when the scream ceased, getting the Headmaster to pause.

Luna stood up, evidently unconcerned by what had just happened or the fact that she still had not yet been assigned a house, and plucked the hat off her head, saying "There's no need to be rude about things. Really, if you won't come to the decision, you can hardly blame me for settling the argument for you." And she walked off, heading directly for the Gryffindor table, her badge and scarf changing to the proper colors for such as she did so.

"...She goes where she wants..." wheezed out the hat, tiredly, and there was a small amount of scattered applause at the Gryffindor table as Luna sat down, her wide eyes turning back to the hat. A look of concern flashed across the Headmaster's face, once more, but the sorting proceeded without further odd occurrences. The hat barely touched Ginny's head before it called out Gryffindor.

It had been the best day of Ginny's life, strange as it had been, and she couldn't wait to tell Tom about it.


	4. Last and First Dances

Albus Dumbledore was not having one of the better opening days of his tenure as Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. This was owing to several students he had a direct interest in.

First, and worst, Harry Potter and Ronald Weasley had conducted themselves in as immature and foolish a manner as Dumbledore could think possible. He'd had a very unpleasant conversation with Severus where his potions master had pushed for their severe punishment, and then the opening feast had not proven as restful as he would have liked.

Dumbledore had kept his eyes on the Lovegoods since the funeral, as he'd promised himself, but he'd been able to learn an infuriatingly small amount about Luna, or the accident's details: Luna had been coated in the potion that her mother had been experimenting with, and that potion had effected at least surface changes in the girl, mainly her eye color. But as for what it did?

The experiment notes had been enchanted to be unreadable by any but an immediate blood family member, a parent or a child; Dumbledore was unwilling to undo the enchantment, as doing so risked destroying the text. Unfortunately, immediate 'blood' family member didn't extend to Solus Lovegood, and young Luna was indeed the only person who still qualified. She had read the notes, but had claimed through her father that her mother said they were supposed to be family only secret; her father had refused to allow Luna to be pressed further, and Dumbledore had already proven that her mind's contents could not be had easily.

Still, Molly had said the girl was quite close with her Ginny, and seemed somewhat happy most of the time, if very absentminded. And so Dumbledore had decided everything was well in that corner.

Until the Sorting Hat had screamed, and refused to declare a house for her.

And so, Albus had now decided that he needed to discover for himself just why the hat had had such a time with her, when it never had done such a thing in all his time at Hogwarts. And so, the Headmaster of Hogwarts dropped the Sorting Hat upon his own head.

"Quite a night, wasn't it, Professor?"

"You could say that. You know what I want to know of, of course."

"Young Miss Lovegood, I imagine. I am not sure how much I can say."

"And why is that? You should know her heart and mind. That is what you are for, is it not? Is Gryffindor the correct house for her?"

"It is, and it is, and it isn't."

"...What?"

"I cannot be clearer without breaking a promise to her I made. A warning I can give, because she didn't think to have me promise more specifically: Her mother was attempting to bring back the source of her family's strength. She succeeded, in Luna, partially."

"Her family's strength?"

"She does mean well, and she may save everything, in the end. Or destroy it. Good night, Headmaster."

And with that, the hat floated itself off of Dumbledore's head, landing on a shelf.

Dumbledore was related to Terra Lovegood, indirectly, as many of the purebloods were interrelated. And he knew the main claim to fame that that family had had – Terra Lovegood was a direct descendant of the witch who had invented Apparition. It had given the family a good deal of military power, until the invention of wards against the process several decades later, which eliminated the element of surprise and the usefulness of the combat technique that had been called "Wind Dancing", and the family had leveraged some further power out of Apparition by selling the method to the ministry. The money was mostly gone by now, but the one remaining benefit was that direct descendants of the inventor did not have to have a license to Apparate.

It had been a magical contract, and the law was inalterable, but for the most part the descendants were not told about that, by anyone, until they came of age, both for their own safety and for their parent's sanity.

It was clear that this had to be the source of power that Terra had been attempting to recreate. Perhaps it was a new method of magical travel...

Well, Albus mused, it was more than he'd had, and reassurances that Luna had good intentions were more than welcome. The hints that she had the power to act on those intentions less so, but he would have to just try and guide her, and ending up in Gryffindor would be a big help, irregular sorting or not.

That resolved, for the moment, Dumbledore moved on to his next problem – how to tell Professor Sprout that she needed to spend time the next morning mending the Whomping Willow.

* * *

A part of this plan she hadn't really thought through was just how dull classes were going to be. They'd always come easily to her, Luna mused, but going through them a second time... Well, at least it would be a chance to try electives she'd never done. Muggle Studies and Care of Magical Creatures didn't hold much appeal to her, but better that than repeating classes she'd done once...

Of course, the fact that she was musing to herself like this, rather than paying any attention at all to the Professor at the front of the class, was driving Hermione to be herself..

'Luna, pay attention! I know you know all of this, but you need to be able to fake like you're a first year or you'll never fit in without being noticed! And she's going to spot that you're not taking any notes or anything, and everyone else is going a mile a minute...'

Luna didn't reply, of course. Speaking in class out of turn was fine, to her, but doing so to argue with Hermione was just a waste of breathe. Especially since Luna had no real intention of hiding her ability. Still, the Gryffindor head of house was indeed looking rather irately at her, though she'd currently paused to hand out toothpicks to try to turn into needles.

Luna smiled as she took her toothpick, setting it on her desk and withdrawing her wand, when Professor McGonagall spoke up. "Now remember, class, think sharp and metal!"

Sharp and metal, Luna mused, waving her wand absently at the toothpick. A familiar requirement...

'Luna, NO!' Hermione's voice rang out, far too late. Luna looked down at her desk...

It was sharp. It was metal.

It was, however, not quite a needle, and it had attracted the Professor's attention. "Miss Lovegood! That is not quite what I had in mind!" McGonagall was looking rather cross, and Luna knew why.

The item on her desk was very familiar to Luna – a knife, rather a lovely one, curved and set with blue gems in the handle. Luna had never owned an actual one like it, but it was the one she always transfigured something to use to Dance with. And it was the one she'd used in her final battle. Luna picked up the knife, staring at it, looking at her own reflection in the blade...

And, in a flash, she saw herself, older, desperate. She saw a fight, the last fight. She saw herself move, twirling and vanishing, reappearing here and there to strike and dodge, weaving. She saw the others on her side, Hermione and several others, some of them falling in their own efforts at finally carrying the war for the side of Light and Right, but mostly winning, led by her own seemingly suicidal effort.

Luna saw herself, appearing before one of the remaining Death Eaters, drive the conjured blade into his chest, twist...

Luna saw her final kill drop to his knees, not fighting as the blood rushed from his chest, screaming as he ripped the hood and mask from his familiar face with his last effort...

Ronald never had been able to throw off the Imperius.

"MISS LOVEGOOD!" Professor McGonagall was actually yelling at her, finally bringing her back to the world and Luna dropped the knife back onto the table. "Oh, I'm sorry, Professor. Sharp... I thought of the wrong thing." Luna waved her wand once more, focusing a bit more, and the knife was a needle.

McGonagall raised her eyebrows, picking the needle up and examining it. "...Very fine work, Miss Lovegood. I'm glad you were paying attention, after all."

'...She's going to report this to the Headmaster, you know.'

"I know. ...Ah, thank you, Professor."

But Luna could hear the whispers in the rest of the class, and one in particular that did quite hurt, even if she knew it shouldn't.

Colin Creevy's voice, in the back of the classroom. "A knife like that..? Is she some sort of maniac? ...Or is it a lunatic?"

From there, it'd be Loony Lovegood in a few days, Luna mused. Well. Some things weren't escapable, and people thought what they would.

* * *

And so classes went, Luna completely failing to pay attention and acing her work regardless, rather infuriating Hermione. To Luna's slight disappointment, absolutely nothing had happened when she'd shaken Hermione's hand; she's rather hoped she'd have an ally in the world, rather than a voice in her head that told her to focus on classes and that she was making a huge mistake by 'showing off' her NEWT level skill.

Luna had revolted by discontinuing writing essays and instead transfiguring them onto parchment just before the class period they were due in, using her old ones from her first year. It would be interesting to see if they got different grades when she was in a different house, and when she was performing better on in-class exercises, after all.

She did indeed quickly notice differences in two classes: She was receiving slightly better grades in charms, possibly owing to Flitwick expecting more from his own students than from anyone else or possibly due to her having performed every charm covered so far correctly on the first try. She was, however, receiving considerably worse grades in potions.

Her grades in potions had never been great, by Ravenclaw standards, but she was somewhat skilled at the actual making and had received Es at both OWL and NEWT level. She was averaging two levels lower on the essays than she had the first time, for what she decided were obvious reasons.

Still, it was mostly just for her own amusement and to avoid being kicked out that she bothered with classwork at all.

Other things were more important, and Luna had definitely noticed Ginny's withdrawal from the world, though she hadn't interfered in it. Ginny had been a strong person, but Luna was convinced much of her strength came from the events of this year.

However, Luna knew that she couldn't allow for random chance to strike and get someone killed by the basilisk. It had been a miracle nobody had died the first time around. And so she had formed a plan that she certainly was NOT sharing with Hermione until the time came...

Luna didn't particularly care if Filch's familiar died, and that event was right next to the bathroom; there wasn't enough room to deal with things, there. She didn't interfere, instead enjoying the feast and trying to ignore the absence of Ginny, Ronald, Harry, and Hermione, as well as the firmly protesting voice in her head. She was getting quite good at ignoring that Hermione.

And, indeed, the Chamber of Secrets was opened without any cats dying, though one was indeed petrified. Luna's opportunity was two weeks later, the night of the Gryffindor-Slytherin quidditch match, for she knew when and where Colin Creevy was attacked.

Luna stayed awake, feigning sleep and waiting for her red-headed roommate to walk out of the room in a trance. Once Ginny did, Luna cast silencing charms on her curtains, closed them, and stood up on her bed.

"Thank you, Mother." she mumbled, as she turned, vanishing into air and reappearing at a stairwell near the infirmary, hiding in a shady alcove and waiting for Creevy, Ginny, and a certain snake... And making preparations.

Luna waved her wand, conjuring three things – a cloak, a scarf, a knife. "...I do hope the charms will take care of this, but better safe then sorry."

'Luna, you cannot POSSIBLY be planning on killing a basilisk with a knife that size. I know you're good, but nobody is that good.'

"I'm planning on killing it with blasting hexes, but it's magically.. Ssh!" Luna tilted her head, tying the scarf over her eyes – she noticed with some amusement that she'd actually conjured a Ravenclaw scarf – and pulling the cloak on. She didn't want Ginny to recognize her, after all, since she was planning on allowing the possession to continue a bit longer. Luna thought that this would force Riddle to abduct Ginny earlier, allowing Harry to go after her – possibly with some proper hints. But he'd have an easier time without the over-sized snake there...

"It's coming." Luna heard footsteps – Creevy – and a light hissing. A gasp, a hissing sound, the click of a camera, and a thud. More hissing... And Luna had the range from the sound.

A soft popping sound was unavoidable, of course, though it was a far cry from the crack that most wizards and witches produced upon apparating. Luna appeared directly above the basilisk, and she dropped down knife-first, aiming to try to get on top of it and straddle while blasting away.

She succeeded at sinking the knife into it, and holding on, but her blasting curse was not as effective as she'd hoped. Luna was covered in blood as a pit of the snake was taken out, but part of that damaged was the area in which she had her knife sunk, and Luna was sent flying as the snake thrashed about, crashing into a wall and sinking down against it. Her scarf slid off her eyes onto her lap, cut from behind in the impact with the wall, but that was luckily not of consequence – the basilisk, confused from the ambush and extremely wounded, still not having actually spotted her, was fleeing, and Riddle Ginny was leaving with it. Which was lucky, Luna contemplated as she felt at the back of her head.

...Some of the blood on her was her own. Quite a lot, really, though not compared to the amount flooding the hallway from the basilisk. Perhaps it would bleed to death, though it was more likely that Riddle would be able to patch it up. Still, it might be some time healing...

Luna heard Hermione's voice, distantly, yelling at her as she slid into darkness, completely coated in blood, in a hallway with a Petrified Colin Creevy and a knife that Professor McGonagall would undoubtedly immediately recognize.

She was going to have to plan better in the future, she decided.


	5. Sleep and Shards

Hers, not mine.

There's been a little confusion over exactly what happened in the fight, so: Luna put a (Ravenclaw) scarf on as a blindfold and conjured a knife, memorizing the area and plotting an ambush. When she heard the snake, she Apparated above it and struck downwards. (The ability to Apparate within wards being Luna's special little power in this fiction, everything else being the abilities of a talented but not exceptionally powerful witch) Using her knife as an anchor, Luna tried to blast the snake apart; she partly succeeded before the basilisk flung her off into the wall. The snake fled, bleeding badly, but its eye uninjured. and Ginny/Riddle followed; it is uncertain whether Luna was recognized by Ginny, but in any case she's left disabled in what are very suspicious circumstances for whoever comes along. And there, we resume:

* * *

Minerva McGonagall rubbed her temples as she made her rounds. The year was still young, not even quite halfway through November, but there had already been enough excitement and irregularities to fill any normal school year. Filch was being insufferable about his cat, who Minerva quite disliked in her own feline opinion, and they'd made no real progress in discovering anything useful about the Chamber of Secrets or the perpetrator in the incident.

Add to that yet another group of first years that somehow failed to inspire much hope for the future success of Gryffindor... Well, the current second years were sometimes an exception, particularly Granger, but the current first years? Creevey in particular worried her; he had been borderline stalking Potter, had yet to achieve much in his classes, and had tagged another of her students with the rather horrifying nickname of "Loony."

Not that McGonagall could truthfully blame him much for that, horrible as it was.

Luna Lovegood's display in her first class had astonished McGonagall, and she had naturally discussed it with Dumbledore, who had explained the circumstances of her mother's death, and told her of his discussion with the Sorting Hat, ending with a warning, of sorts.

"I do not know for certain what her mother did to her. We must watch her, and guide her, as we do all of our students."

Since then, McGonagall had kept a careful eye on Luna in classes. The girl had done every practical assignment on the first attempt, flawlessly – Minerva had never seen such talent for the subject. Yet her essays were... unusual, at best.

McGonagall was musing over those problems, and the unexpectedly introverted manner of the youngest Weasley, when she tripped over a motionless body.

Shifting into Animagus form, Minerva landed on her feet. But she did not keep her footing, slipping in the blood on the floor, ending up with her belly covered in it. Now that she was in cat form, Minerva could quite clearly see what was before her – a large amount of blood, and a girl, off to the side. Miss Lovegood, it appeared. Looking behind her, to spot what she tripped over, Minerva saw another body – this one clearly petrified, holding a camera before his face – Mister Creevey. Minerva quickly changed back to normal, whipping out her wand and sending her Patronus off to fetch Dumbledore as she knelt by the blond girl.

Luna was breathing, and thus not petrified, but it became clear fairly quickly upon a close inspection that she was in far more danger than Creevey. Creevey would be stuck as he was until the mandrakes were ready; Miss Lovegood needed immediate assistance; the blood on the scene seemed to be coming from wounds on her head and back.

"But there is no way.. all of this." Minerva looked about the hallway, lighting the nearby torches with a wave of her wand.

There was the large pool of blood right here, but then streaks down the hallway.. They would have to investigate, as soon as they had the pair of injured students secured.

Minerva looked closer to her student, and saw two rather worrying details as she, at last, heard Albus' footsteps approaching. A knife, a knife she had seen before in Lovegood's hands... and a Ravenclaw scarf, right beside the girl. How had that gotten there? Was a Ravenclaw responsible for this?

"What.. what has happened, Minerva?" came Albus' voice, betraying actual surprise. McGonagall couldn't remember the last time she'd heard him surprised.

"We must get her to the hospital wing right away, Headmaster. She may be able to name her attacker, if she lives." The last hurt to add, but Minerva had to be honest. "Your knowledge of healing charms is much greater than mine, and I believe that she may have internal injuries. If you would?"

Albus nodded, and began securing Luna as Minerva enchanted Colin Creevey to fly behind her to the hospital wing.

* * *

Tom -

There's all sorts of rumors about another attack the other night! At first, we heard that Luna and Colin were dead, even, but Professor Dumbledore announced that that wasn't true. Colin's been petrified, and Luna's supposed to be asleep for a while while she recovers. Classes seem a lot smaller without them!

I'm missing one of my robes, though. I hope I didn't lose it, Mum would kill me.

Yours, Ginny.

* * *

Ginny -

You sound very concerned about your friends. Can you tell me about them and what might have happened?

* * *

Hermione was beginning to grow rather panicked as Luna continued to remain unconscious for well over a week. Hermione could still hear what was going on around them, though with Luna's eyes shut she could not see, and she had caught enough to know that Luna had only just been found in time, but would indeed recover. Hopefully, she would wake soon; it was very lonely without anything new to focus on or think about.

Being a disembodied spirit was not a very useful experience, Hermione had long since discovered. Luna was a maddening host, of course, though Hermione was sometimes glad she couldn't hear the girl's thoughts. Having learned how to hide her own unless she wanted to share had been nice, as well. It wouldn't do to squabble with someone you were very much trapped with.

Hermione had been absolutely appalled at her friend's handling of the situation. Attempting to kill off the basilisk? Luna was experienced with fighting, of course, Hermione had to admit that she – and her apparating style of fighting, her Dancing – had been the greatest weapons their side had had in the war. But even giants weren't anything like fighting a basilisk, and Luna had hardly picked a good place to use her advantage in mobility.

Still, the basilisk had been severely wounded, perhaps even mortally so if Riddle hadn't managed to keep his grip on Ginny long enough to heal the gaping hole in it. Hermione just wished Luna hadn't come so close to dying, in the process.

And she was rather worried that Luna was intentionally courting death.

"Headmaster! While I can wake her, I do think that we should wait another day or two before doing so!" came Madam Pomfrey's voice, growing as the woman and whoever she was with approached. The headmaster, as least, and likely others judging by the sound of footsteps.

"My dear, we must discover what we can about the attack as soon as possible. Please, wake her up, now."

Hermione felt a potion being forced down her – Luna's – throat, and her eyes opened slowly.

'Luna, are you alright?' she thought in her friend's direction, even as Dumbledore leaned down over her and asked a similar question.

"Miss Lovegood, can you hear me?"

"...No, not really." said Luna, presumably in response to Hermione's question. Possibly, Luna noticed her head of house standing behind Dumbledore with a severe expression in response to that, because she continued "...my head hurts, but I can a little." Which was true enough, if someone decided to write on them.

"Miss Lovegood, will you please tell me what happened? We found you with a petrified student and a great deal of blood. Did someone attack you?"

'You need to tell him about the basilisk! They'll know YOU have to know something, and you need to avoid being detected' Hermione prompted, drawing an annoyed shake of the head from Luna.

"...It was a snake." she said, slurring her words out, not wanting to be questioned closer than she had to. Not that she was likely to avoid it, but she had to try.

"None of my students were out of the dormitory, and the disrespect of referring to them like that.." came Snape's voice. "And it was a Ravenclaw's scarf found on the scene!"

"Severus!" said the headmaster; Hermione wasn't surprised. He probably hadn't planned on sharing that information with Luna, after all.

"No, not a Slytherin, a snake. Really, really big. Colin and I were coming to see Harry, he heard something and turned to take a picture.. And he fell over. I remembered the knife, from class... I stuck it with it, and cut, and it thrashed around and hit me. But I don't remember anything else." This explanation had a lot of things going against it, not least that it was provably a lie, but it was probably as good as Luna could do. The only one who'd be able to disprove it without a truth potion was Colin, though, and the issue wouldn't be much of one by then. Hopefully.

"I.. see." Dumbledore looked a little thoughtful as that additional information reached him, and Hermione wondered if he now realized what it was, down in that chamber. Probably not yet, but it might be enough to clue him in. Which should be enough to get some fresh roosters into the area, at least making things somewhat more difficult for Riddle...

Luna meanwhile desperately tried to prevent follow up questions. "When can I get out of here? I don't want to fall behind in class."

'You could ace your OWLs today, Luna. You should rest and recover.' Odd as it was for Hermione to say that classes were less important, Luna had had solid enough grades her first time around, and the first year material was an absolute joke to a witch of her skill.

"Madam Pomfrey would like for you to stay for at least another night for observation."

"...Yes, Headmaster," said Luna, looking slightly dejected. Still, from there she was able to keep the conversation from focusing on the details, eventually drawing the group to leaving when Pomfrey decided they'd gotten quite enough from her for the moment and she needed her rest. It wasn't true, of course, but she'd take it.

* * *

Luna was more than a little relieved to finally be released from the hospital wing, even if it was with the caveat that any headaches, any headaches at all, and she was to return immediately.

Luna was especially relieved because today was another day she planned on changing, and she had been more than a little worried about missing it when the 'overnight' stay had turned into three days and nights.

Still, after several mumbled conversations with Hermione, Luna had decided on a course of action for the night's events. Hermione hated her plan for a few reasons, which Luna thought of by and large as a positive.

And Luna did feel rather strongly that protecting Harry from the stares and whispers of the Hogwarts population was a worthwhile goal, even if her methods were going to be a bit extreme. As for the rest? Well, that was just fun, even if it was showing off.

Luna spent much of the day stalking around in an attempt to find Harry on his own, and eventually succeeded as, before supper, Ronald went into a restroom without him. Deciding that her time was rather limited, Luna popped around the corner she was hiding behind, casting a stunner wordlessly at Harry's back.

'I can not believe you're going through with this! It's like something a Slytherin would do!'

"Rowena Ravenclaw was originally closer to Slytherin than the other two, you know, even if they fell out over the muggle-born issue eventually. At least, that's what the books on her in the Ravenclaw library say." Luna said, softly, even as she moved over to take Harry by the arm, Side-Along Apparating with him in hand to a seldom-used supply cupboard on the sixth floor.

'...Ravenclaws have their own library?'

"Well, it's not much of one, really, just ten or eleven shelves in the common room. Mostly rarities, with a lot on the house's history." Luna conjured ropes, just in case Harry woke up before the Dueling Club – extremely unlikely, since it was in a mere two hours – and tied Harry up. "Alright, that's done, just have to make sure Snape will pick me to go with Malfoy. I think he will, after this morning, but I have an idea to be certain..."

'I still can't believe you asked him if he fed the Gritlocks in his hair properly, especially after...'

Luna cut Hermione off. "Well, it is a valid question; if he did, they wouldn't make quite so much grease and his hair would be less likely to catch on fire due to a few stray sparks."

'Even directed stray sparks?'

"I didn't say THAT."

And so, Luna headed to supper, leaving one of her best friends tied up in the closet behind her, for his own good.

Eventually, time for the dueling club rolled around, and even if the current Hermione and Ronald were looking a little bit worried, Luna wouldn't comment. No, she had something else to worry about, even as Snape and Lockheart demonstrated for the crowd. She walked up behind Draco Malfoy, tugging on the back of his scarf.

"...HEY! What is it?" Malfoy asked, even as he wheeled about.

"Is it true that you have a crush on Hermione Granger? Only, I see you insulting her all the time, and it seems clear you really love her."

"What?" Malfoy looked momentarily bewildered, before turning angry. "How DARE you, you filthy little blood traitor?" And it was at this moment that Severus Snape came around, pairing people up. Evidently recognizing the current hostility between Draco and her, he did indeed pair them up.

'Are you going to do it now?'

"Oh, I'll wait until we're up on stage."

And Luna allowed herself to be hit with a leg-locker hex, while in return drilling Malfoy with a pin-prickling curse, before Snape intervened with the area disenchantment charm.

Indeed, soon enough, Snape had volunteered Malfoy and her for a stage demonstration, and she was having the worst blocking she'd ever seen demonstrated to her by Lockheart.

The duel went more or less as Luna expected.

"Serpensortia!" First, of course, was the snake summoning charm that Snape taught Draco just before the fight.

"Infernus!" Then, naturally, came her response, setting the snake ablaze rather than talking to it as Harry had done. Not that she could have copied him, anyway. Luna moved her wand hand behind her back, twirling it in her fingers expertly as she smiled at Malfoy. Who seemed, somehow, not to appreciate her behavior.

He sent a tickling curse at her, not a particularly threatening hex, but Luna moved her wand to block in spite of that, expertly deflecting it straight back at the Slytherin, sending him into a fit of laughter. Not quite provocation enough, or reason to end the duel yet.

Fortunately, Malfoy decided to provide her with justification, and sent a slicing hex at her, at head level. Luna deflected it, and then her wand stopped moving in her hand.

"Expellius!" Luna cried, intentionally making up a derivation of the disarming hex, even while thinking an actual incantation. A rather nastier one that hadn't quite been invented yet that she had no intention of spreading about, even if claiming credit might infuriate the inventor. Splintify!

'Luna, no!' Hermione cried, far too late, recognizing the cyan bolt that shot towards Malfoy and hit precisely on his wand.

Malfoy's wand exploded into a thousand splinters in his hand, screaming in pain as they turned his hand into a bloody mess. Several others were buried in him, though none in too awful places, and Luna smiled at him.

"Oh, that seemed much better than Professor Snape's!"

The silence in the Great Hall was magnificent, Luna decided, as everyone there stared at her for a few seconds before they began taking care of Malfoy.


	6. Truth, Lies, and Prophecy

Author's Note: Sorry about the delay in this. Exams Fanfiction, however.

'Luna,' Hermione's voice asked as the blond witch in question was escorted to the Headmaster's office, wand still twirling in an absolutely expert blocking motion in her fingers, a scowling Potion's master at her back, 'exactly what happened to your plan to let Harry and the rest of us grow on our own, anyway? I understand why you wanted to stop the basilisk, with the chance that someone would die to bad luck, but preventing him from realizing he's a parselmouth? And stopping him from learning the disarming charm, for that matter?'

"You know, I think this will change things for the better, really!" Luna said, smiling, looking back at Professor Snape. "He'll probably learn not to be such a bully, and he did try to kill me, you know. And I just used the charm you showed us. And Professor Lockhart was quite a good teacher for the blocking, wasn't he? Oh, I am glad you were able to regrow your hair, Professor. I was concerned you might be left without it after this morning."

"Inside!" Snape snarled at her in response as the stairway leading to the Professor's office revealed itself. Luna hardly wanted another conversation with the headmaster, especially so soon, but she might just be able to make another change, now that she'd given up on keeping things more or less the same.

After all, if she couldn't make herself keep the deck in order, she should just go ahead and stack it as much as possible.

'You know, I find it rather odd that you're letting Ginny go through what she is, but you won't even allow Harry through public humiliation.' Hermione was rather insistent about pressing her points while Luna couldn't answer, Luna'd noticed. Well, that could be solved in its own little ways, anyway.

Such as lying to the Headmaster. It always got Hermione's figurative back up. And they were in the rather convenient position of being escorted to the Headmaster at this very moment!

Luna sat at the chair before his desk, smiling at Dumbledore as Snape scowled behind her. "Good evening, sir!" she did insert, in the midst of Snape explaining why she should immediately be expelled, executed, and dissected for potion ingredients. Or some subset of that; Luna didn't really pay very close attention, instead waiting for him to wrap up and meeting Dumbledore's gaze steadily, not blinking at all.

Of course, he sounded rather stern as he asked her, "Miss Lovegood, would you care to explain your actions?"

"Of course, sir. I was only trying to disarm him, and really, that's all I.." She trailed off, her eyes unfocused from the headmaster's face as she launched into the second part of her new plan for stacking the deck: Insuring Harry's happiness.

Making her voice rather harsher, as best she could, Luna said "Danger approaches the marked one. The mother's love, unshared by the blood, will not protect from the blood. Left there, he rots, for his true friends cannot aid him there: Betrayed Star, in the island fortress, wrongly besmirched. The Red Ones, brave and true, but unknowingly holding his betrayer in their care. The Librarian, steady and clever, but trusting in corrupt authority. The Kind One, held down from within, not yet knowing his own strength. The Night's Light, seeking to purge the darkness, hidden by the bright light of day. The marked one must be allowed by the Mentor to find refuge with one of these, or blood kills blood and hope fades. Danger approaches the marked one."

With that, Luna pitched forward out of her seat, aiming to look as though she'd fainted. Hermione's voice screeching 'The LIBRARIAN? I should murder you for that, if I ever get out of here!" in her head made her jump slightly more than she'd meant, and Luna cracked her forehead on the edge of the desk, the world fading immediately to black as she aggravated her earlier concussion.

Dumbledore's eyes were wide in surprise as Miss Lovegood gave what certainly appeared to be a valid prophecy. At the least, it followed with the forms that Dumbledore had heard before, though he was unaware of any Seer bloodlines in Luna's family.

He looked over at Professor Snape, coming to a decision he had been contemplating for dealing with the girl on the ground, reluctant though he had come to it. "Severus. Would you retrieve a dose of truth serum, please? Not verituserum, naturally; simple truth seeking solution should work."

Unfortunately, he knew quite well that Miss Lovegood wouldn't remember the prophecy if it were indeed a true one, and thinking over the contents, he couldn't see how it could possibly be anything else. The contents showed knowledge that Luna Lovegood, or for that matter anyone else besides Dumbledore himself, and possibly Severus and Minerva, could not know.

The 'marked one' was clearly Harry, of course, and Luna had had little association with Mister Potter – at least, so far, though this prophecy seemed to outline that that should change. The others were meant to be his associates, and most of them were fairly obvious, though interesting in some cases.

Betrayed Star, in an island fortress... Sirius Black? That was rather troubling, especially when the next sentence claimed that a group of people, most likely the Weasleys, were aiding his betrayer. That made no sense to Dumbledore, but it could be worth looking into.

The Librarian quite clearly was Miss Granger. Though who was the corrupt authority? The Ministry, perhaps? Or maybe himself, if the main theme of the prophecy was to warn him that Harry's family was going to harm him.

The Kind One was unclear. Probably one of Harry's classmates; Mister Longbottom or Mister Finnegan, perhaps; both of them were currently failing to live up to potential that they had. However, the last 'friend' identified was more obvious, and far more troubling. Night's Light was a reference to the Moon. Luna Lovegood, herself. It was uncommon for a prophecy to mention the Seer themselves in it, but it had been done before...

Well. Clearly, Dumbledore would have to find somewhere else for Harry to spend his summer. Right after getting a few clearer answers from Miss Lovegood, he decided, having spent his time while considering the prophecy sitting Luna into a more comfortable chair and bandaging her head where it had struck the desk. She wasn't bleeding, at least, and he didn't want to wake her just yet.

"Thank you, Severus. And good evening, Minerva." For the Gryffindor head of house had evidently followed the Potions master from the dungeons, having gotten word, undoubtedly, about the incident at the dueling club.

"You cannot seriously mean to do this, Albus." That was Minerva, of course, even as Dumbledore made tea and mixed an appropriate dose into Miss Lovegood's cup.

"I do not feel I have a choice, Minerva. Miss Lovegood's behavior has been more than a little suspicious, and with her having been found on the scene of the last attack, the Governors will be calling for her expulsion for Mister Malfoy's injuring and the destruction of his wand. I need some form of evidence to lay before them, and it is best if I question her, rather than that they do so. Particularly Lucius Malfoy. Beyond that, however... I have analyzed that knife she claims to have learned to transfigure during your first class. I admit that transfiguring an object into that form may, barely, be within an incredibly bright first year's abilities. However, the knife she used that night was conjured."

Minerva sucked air in through her teeth. Conjuring was a sixth year topic, at the earliest; Miss Lovegood could hardly have managed that by accident. "...She's gotten every practical assignment right on her first try, but even so..."

"Quite. And so, I believe we should find some answers. It isn't verituserum, Minerva; she'll come to no harm."

Dumbledore stood, reviving Miss Lovegood with a wave of his wand, peering at her with unfeigned concern. "Miss Lovegood, are you feeling well? You fell from your chair, and hit your head." He had no intention of informing her of the prophecy. It had been clearly intended for him to act upon, after all. "I've made tea for you." He handed her the cup, across the desk, smiling and sipping at his own unlaced cup.

For a moment, he was worried that the small girl would refuse to drink, especially as she sniffed the tea, but after a slight hesitation, she did indeed down the laced tea. It would be a little tricky to go at this without giving away to Miss Lovegood that she had given a prophecy, but he didn't dare risk being forced to alter her memory, not when he didn't understand how she functioned with the bewildering disarray of her mind in the first place.

"Enjoy your tea?"

"It has too much lemon in it.." came the reply, rather absently. Well, he didn't think she'd be that rude intentionally, so it was probably the potion working. Still, best to approach the subject of prophecies carefully, and there were other things that he needed to check on...

"Miss Lovegood, I must admit to being a little curious about how a first year witch could put on the display you managed earlier. I myself do not know quite how you managed to do that. Would you care to explain?" It had, in the end, been within – just barely – the rules that had been set up, much as Lucius Malfoy would be calling for young Miss Lovegood's expulsion.

Luna turned her eyes up to him, and for an instant he had the unmistakable impression that she knew about the potion in her tea. The instant passed, however.

"My mother... liked to experiment, and she didn't like solicitors." came the answer, after a few moments.

"...I see. Can you show me the motion you used, Miss Lovegood? It is quite advanced to deflect a spell with your wand, you know." And very few wizards used that approach as opposed to a shield charm; it was doubtful that Lockhart truly knew how to do it correctly, himself, judging by the level of aptitude he'd shown thus far.

Still, Miss Lovegood seemed to have no objection, and as she twirled her wand before her, Dumbledore watched the pattern used quite carefully. He was quite shaken as he recognized it, and though he tried to conceal it, Minerva was looking at him in such a way that he knew he'd failed in her case, at the least.

"Thank you, Miss Lovegood. You are... quite a precocious young witch. Have you given any thought to what you might do for a career?"

Luna stopped her wand, sliding it back behind her ear. "Well, I thought I might write for the Quibbler. It'll be to me to keep it going, some day. Or I might become an.." and here, here the truth serum did take effect. For while Luna attempted to say something else - Dumbledore wasn't sure what - what came out was "hit-witch." Luna looked mildly surprised, but shrugged. Dumbledore wasn't truly surprised, though the look on Severus' face was rather priceless.

Indeed, Severus was surprised enough that he spoke up. "You, a hit-witch? The Ministry broke them up at the end of the war, Lovegood."

Dumbledore raised a hand to silence Snape, looking down at Luna tiredly. This was very interesting, but he needed answers to another subject before the serum wore off.

"I see. Those are ambitious goals. Have you considered what subjects you'll be pursuing to meet them? Divination, for instance, could be quite useful in finding stories "

"Divination? It's really rather useless, isn't it? There's no destiny other than what we cause to happen."

"You don't believe there are true prophecies, Miss Lovegood?"

"Of course there aren't. How could there be, when people have choices about what they do?" Not an uncommon view, but from a first year of Luna's background, odd.

"I see.. Well, thank you, Miss Lovegood. There will be no punishment for your actions tonight, but please in the future limit yourself to spells of a non-permanent nature. Dismissed." Dumbledore waited as Luna left the room, looking over at the clearly upset potions master. "You do not agree with my actions, Severus?"

"She injured a fellow student and worse, destroyed his wand. She should not be allowed to get off without punishment."

"That is hardly the most concerning thing she's done tonight, Severus. That prophecy... And that wand motion. Did you not recognize it?"

"It seemed a rather well done deflection motion, unlikely something she could pick up from Lockhart at all, much less from one demonstration."

"Not that. The style, the pattern... They were those of the Hit Wizards. I shall have to press my Ministry contacts... Were either of Luna's parents in the Squad during the war? She must have learned it somewhere. I would appreciate it if the two of you would held me find out where."


	7. Simple Solutions, Complex Problems

AN: Sorry this took so long; lost my first draft in a crash. It was way, way better, I guarantee! As always, single quotes are for mental communication, which in this fic more or less exclusively means Hermione-in-Luna's-head. (Hermione cannot hear Luna's thoughts; Luna has to speak out loud to communicate back at Hermione.) This is a note I should have probably given a while back, but I'm sure you'd figured it out.

People have asked about pairings; wait and see, mostly, though I will say there probably won't be a romantic plot between Luna and Hermione. Same answer for Hermione getting her very own body.

There's a 'prequelish' oneshot fic up I wrote not that long ago explaining, in part, Luna's role in the war. It's called Dying Dreams; you can find it from my author page.

As always, what's not mine isn't mine.

* * *

Luna smiled to herself as she headed back for the Gryffindor common room, wand in hand. "Well, I gave away a bit more than I wanted to there, but I think it was really for the best. And it'll be at least a week before Malfoy can hold a wand again..."

'Well, yes, but I can't believe you told him you might be a hit-witch.'

"It was my own fault, I tried to say auror, but... We both know that I could never join them, not while they're still running the Rotfang Conspiracy, and I was a hit-witch for all intents and purposes Before, even if there wasn't a Ministry for me to really work for. I'm still surprised he used Truth Seeking Solution on me, really. Anyway, I don't think I gave away anything else in that regard, so it should be okay."

'Well, yes, and even if I'm rather annoyed at what you called me in it, it is good that you've finally decided to start helping. Do you think that will be enough in Sirius' case?'

"Probably not, unless they figure out the animagus thing, but it might at least make room for some doubts. Anyway, I had to do something; you said the only reason that he found out about it last time was due to the Weasleys winning the grand prize drawing, and they probably won't this time. Random things change completely, you know."

'...Well, yes. I do wonder where he'll end up, anyway, I can't imagine Dumbledore sending Harry back to them after that. On that note, where exactly are you going?'

It was nice to have a conversation that wasn't a squabble with Hermione, something that had been happening less often in the past year or so due to Luna's initial decision not to interfere much, Luna mused.. but she had a habit of asking kind of silly questions. "Gryffindor common room. I remember the Ravenclaw one still, of course, but they might be even less happy to see me now then they were last time."

'...What about Harry?'

Oh, hell. Harry, Luna thought. She'd forgotten. But she didn't want to admit that to Hermione, and so... "Oh, I'd have thought you or Ronald or someone would have tracked him down by now; it's rather late. But we can go by and check on that, I guess. Better safe than Harry missing overnight, and.." A note of worry crept into her voice, try as she might to hide it. "I should try to make friends with them."

'...Well, yes. When are you going to tell them about... everything?'

"Never." Luna refused to clarify her reasons, walking along to the sixth floor, keeping her eyes open for Filch. "Time to play more games..."

And with that, Luna opened the cabinet door wide enough to slide through, facing it as she shut it behind her, gasping for breath she didn't really need.

It came as quite a surprise when a weight hit her in the back, sending her sprawling against the door and onto the floor. Luna rather dazedly felt hands roughly turn her over, and with a whispered "lumos", a bright light erupted from a wand held and aimed at her. Well, it seemed Harry had gotten out of her ropes, though he must have just done so or else he'd have presumably left – she hadn't really locked the closet.

"Ah, hallo! Were you hiding from Filch in here first? Only, you don't mind if I share with you, do you? I didn't mean to surprise you, you know."

'You are much too good at that, Luna'.

"Oh.. I thought you were.. someone else." Harry said, rather lamely. "...Is Filch nearby, then?"

"Well, I think so, yes. It's harder to tell without his cat around to warn in advance, though! It was a rather sweet kitten, don't you think? I do hope it recovers..."

"...Right. You're.. ah, Luna, wasn't it?"

Dear sweet Harry. He must have heard her once again granted nickname, and just as last time, he stuck to her actual name. Luna believed that she wasn't bothered by being called Loony, but if so, she thought, why did someone calling her her actual name make her feel so much better? Even when it was just Harry being polite.

"Oh, yes, and you're Harry Potter." Luna smiled, vaguely, up at him.. "Do you spend much of your time in closets, or is this an exception?"

"No, I don't. As it happens I woke up.. Well, never mind that. We need to get back to the common room. You said Filch was after you? It's after curfew, then?"

"Oh, yes, by quite a lot, you know. I was on my way back from meeting with Professor Dumbledore, but I don't want to have to meet with him again, so I decided to hide. And then I was assaulted by Harry Potter. You are Harry Potter, aren't you? Only I suppose you could be a monster in disguise, hoping to take advantage of my trusting nature."

"Well.. wish I had my bloody cloak, then." Harry said, mostly to himself.

"Oh, you can borrow mine! I think it may have gotten just a little blood on it, at the end."

"...That's not what I.. wait, what? What were you meeting with Dumbledore for, anyway?"

"Oh, directly? I think it was for making Draco Malfoy's wand explode in his hand. But it might just have been because Snape was in a foul mood over that and the fire this morning, you know. He's not a very fair professor, really."

"...Yes, I know. You made Draco Malfoy's wand explode in his hand?"

"Oh, yes, it was dreadfully exciting, at the dueling club, earlier. Would you like to hear about it before we sneak back, then..?"

Luna managed to introduce herself to Harry rather well, she thought, and he'd introduced her briefly to Hermione and Ronald, as well. Hopefully it would last; it would be rather nice to stay friends with the people she'd separated herself from, after all. In any case, if Riddle had been able to fix the basilisk's wounds, there had been an attack the day after the dueling club, before, and Luna meant to end that possibility forever. This was going to be stressful, however, and it was going to involve something a bit unpleasant.

* * *

"I never really liked this feeling, you know." Luna said, the dripping egg sensation washing over her as she disillusioned herself. "And he might see through it, eventually, or Dumbledore will notice if things go wrong enough..."

'Oh, shush. Do you feel up to the other part of the plan? Will it work?'

"It should; I rather wish I'd thought of it before getting smashed into a wall."

'Well, yes. Oh, there goes Ginny, follow her!'

It was nice not having classes, Luna thought as she stepped along behind Ginny, following her through the school to Moaning Myrtle's bathroom, her eyes widening as the Chamber was opened. Luna ducked into one of the stalls. Just wait a few minutes, ambush it, and the basilisk threat would be done with, and the year could go nice and calm through to the end...

And then, naturally, things got much more complicated.

The door opened, and the sound of footsteps echoed through the bathroom, whispers echoing through the room. "Come on, we need to stir it for fifteen minutes and add several ingredients today; lucky that Herbology was canceled, really. I didn't really want to come here by myself, you two."

'...Oh, no! The Polyjuice potion! I was hoping we weren't making it, with the mess you made of things... Without Harry being upset.. You have to get us out of here, you know! Right now!'

Luna shook her head, slipping out of the stall as the trio went into the stall with the potion, holding her wand out and whispering 'Colloportus'. It wouldn't hold them in long once things started getting bad, of course, but it might be long enough... As she did that, she felt the Disillusionment charm begin to wear off; hopefully it wouldn't really matter, anyway.

Though it might be bloody inconvenient.

Luna slipped back into her stall, waiting on the sound of the sinks reopening, listening to the sounds of potion-making in the next stall over, removing a large rock from her robes as she waited. Finally, there was a grinding sound.

"Blimey, what was that?" came Ronald's voice.

"I don't know, I'll check it out." came Harry's, followed by him tugging on the door. "...It's stuck!"

Luna heard the sound of scales sliding across the floor, and acted.

It was astonishing, really, the effect a rooster's call could have. Monsters sometimes had the strangest weaknesses, and the transfiguration wasn't even that difficult. However, Luna had not expected what came next, having sighed in relief as the stall's doors had not yet opened when the basilisk had came.

Well, okay, the howl of rage in Ginny's voice was probably to be expected, really. But what came after...

"ABOMINATION! Fairy freak, I know you're here! I should have killed you in your sleep, but I will fix that now!"

Well, he'd reached the entirely wrong conclusion about where her abilities came from, though that was rather flattering; still, this was probably going to be rather awkward. Especially as the sound of banging from the other stall finally resulting in it crashing open.

"...What the hell is THAT? ...GINNY?" came Ronald's voice, with quieter but similar echoes from Harry and Hermione... And then came a swift scream from Hermione, with Harry and Ronald crying out again.

"Come out, abomination, or they will die, mudblood first!"

"Fine!" Luna said, over the noise of the other two, stepping out of the stall, wrapping her wand through her hair. There was a rather impressively large dead basilisk, halfway through the door; undoubtedly, that would eventually draw attention, but for now it merely blocked the door. No issue for her, of course, but the others... and she could only side-along one person. "Let her go, demon, or else..."

"Or else? Tell me, fairy, did you think I wouldn't notice you, moving to stop me?"

"I'm no fairy, you know. You should get your facts straight; in any case, your monster is done, and so are you. You won't be able to force her to cast any truly.."

"Avada kedavra!" came the cry, and a green bolt streaked out, much to Luna's surprise. Not enough so that she wasn't able to move, of course; battle senses that dull would have left her dead long before. Still, as she dived back into the stall, she heard the sound of something shattering, and worried a bit. How was she going to do this..?, she contemplated, until she was interrupted once more by Ronald's voice. "Hermione! NO! Ginny, what did you DO?"

* * *

Harry Potter hadn't been having a very good week. Assuming it was actually still the same one; he wasn't entirely certain. First, he missed out on a very informative and entertaining dueling club, instead having woken tied up in a closet and then, once he'd eventually gotten loose, been utterly unable to find out who had attacked him.

More importantly, though, their trip to check on the Polyjuice Potion had gone very, very badly, he thought as he sat in a bed in the hospital wing, rubbing the side of his head as he thought back over it, trying to decide just how to explain what had happened. He was, evidently, the only one who could just now.

"Well, Professor, I.. we were brewing a potion in the bathroom, you know, to look into Slytherin's monster, and we were using one of the stalls for it. Well, we heard a loud grinding sound, and the door to the stall was stuck, and then... there was another noise, a rooster call. We got the door to the stall open, but it wasn't a rooster outside it. It was a giant... green thing, a big snake we saw later, though it was already dead, and Ginny Weasley, but it wasn't really her." It was important, he was sure, to get that out as early in the conversation as possible. Whatever trouble they might be in for the potion, it was nothing next to Ginny's problems. If she was even alive; they hadn't told Harry what condition the others were in, exactly.

"She was.. possessed, by something. Luna called it a demon, at one point. But, anyway, Ginny seemed to know that Luna was there, even though she was hiding... Called out for her as an abomination, and a fairy, and then she took Hermione as a hostage, had her wand to her throat and everything, and made Luna come out. They talked, a little bit, and then..." Harry swallowed. The light had been so familiar.

"Ginny, or whoever she was, cast something, sounded like the muggle abracadabra... And there was this green light." Harry blinked up at Dumbledore, who was now leaning forward intently. "...Did she? I assume noone was struck by this spell?"

"Well, Luna dodged it, Sir, but it hit a mirror and reflected to strike Hermione. Ron and I... we thought she was dead, really, she looked it. Anyway, Ginny hit the two of us with a blasting hex, but Luna got behind her somehow and knocked her out with a spell, stupefy or something like that. I don't know how the two of them knew so much, really... But Luna knelled down over Hermione, and there was this.. bright light. Brilliant, white... I don't know what it was."

"Luna passed out after that, but Hermione was back on her feet, and she seemed to know what had caused Ginny's possession. She grabbed a book from Ginny's robes, and set it on fire, but... It exploded, and then the next thing I remember is being here. Sir, may I ask a question?"

"...Of course, Harry," said Dumbledore, looking more than a little surprised, now.

"Just what happened? I don't understand it."

"Neither do I, my boy, yet. We shall learn more when your friends recover, particularly Miss Lovegood, but she shows no signs of stirring. Your encounter brought the room down on you; you are fortunate to have lived, let alone have recovered in the three days that you have. It may be some time yet before the others do, but I assure you, I shall inform the school when I have reached a conclusion. One thing that I can tell you, Harry, is that the 'snake' you spoke of was a very dangerous magical creature called a basilisk, whose major weakness is the call of a rooster. It was this that was the monster in the Chamber of Secrets; the school is, at least, safe once more."

For now, Dumbledore thought, images of two first year girls, demons, and fairies going through his head.


	8. Reflections

What's mine is yours, and what's yours is mine, but what's here isn't either of ours. Sorry.

Yes, the first scene in this chapter happens before the last scene in the last. If you wanted sequential, you wouldn't be reading a time travel fic, would you?

* * *

Luna looked over the mess in the bathroom, her two best friends down on the floor. Not that Hermione had known it - not that she ever would.

Hermione in her head did, of course, though she was currently ranting and screaming, hysterical about her counterpart's death. Assuming that was really Hermione in her head. Maybe she really had become a lunatic, maybe there was nothing there at all. Was this a dream? No, it seemed too real..

Luna kneeled down, tears streaming down her face, as she reached a hand out to touch Hermione's, her far too young eyes staring at the ceiling sightlessly...

And there was a ripping, a tearing in Luna's head, and a blinding white light that failed to fade. And a silence - the voice in her head, Hermione or her own madness, had stopped. Luna felt herself hit the ground, unable to move, and then a great noise over her head.. And then a brief moment of crushing pain before nothingness.

* * *

Hermione opened her eyes, blearily, and tried to sit up. It was quite a shock when she did at least partially sit up, though!

Oh.. That's right, she thought to herself, I... was killed. And it was like a magnet, drawing me there, I just couldn't not go...

"Miss Granger, can you hear me?" She heard, drawing her attention upwards to the voice. Oh. This probably wasn't someone she needed to deal with right now. Still, she nodded.

"Miss Granger, I am sorry to bother you so soon, but I must understand what has happened. Can you tell me what you remember?" Albus Dumbledore asked.

Hermione shook her head, averting her eyes - her mental defenses were not as good as they could be, and unlike Luna's torrential mindscape her mind was organized enough for another to have access to. She couldn't let Dumbledore have an advantage like eye contact. "I'm sorry, Headmaster, I don't remember anything... What happened?"

"We're not certain, yet. We had hoped you could tell us, since Mister Potter and Mister Weasley both said that you were taking rather decisive action before the cieling fell in." Dumbledore was fishing, and Hermione needed to get off the hook. At least long enough to figure out what to do.

"I'm sorry, headmaster, I can't remember anything about what happened. And I'm quite tired... Can I go back to sleep, please?" Madam Pomfrey rushed in at that, having evidently been listening, and Hermione got her respite.

* * *

"Hello. You need to wake up, now."

Luna sat up, her hand going to her head, looking at the person who had woken her up. "Hello," she said, a brief moment of surprise running through her. Luna looked down at herself, and was a bit less shocked at what she saw.

Ginny had been, would be beautiful, when she grew up. Hermione, too, had she not been murdered by Luna's idiocy. Luna, however, at least to her own mind looked too worn, too ghostlike to measure up to her friends. She was a wisp, she liked to think, able to float from place to place, but just skimming the surface. Still, it was nice to look her age again, even if this were only in her mind. Or possible beyond the veil at last.

"I never got to say I was sorry for what I was doing, but I was. Especially with it ending like this."

The small blond girl watched with her green eyes, the potion never having changed them to a shining silver. "Well, I got to stay with mother, didn't I? And it isn't over. I have warnings for you from her."

Luna nodded, concealing her disappointment and excitement at that, trying to smile at her younger self. "Go on?"

The younger Luna smiled back, then got a look of concentration, clearly trying to remember it exactly. "Beware those who would follow fate. Beware the centaurs and seers, and anyone who would want to use them. Their prophecies and scrying won't be working anymore, not since you began acting like a Rippling Laote in a broom shop in time, and any of them who work to find the cause will be finding you."

Luna felt her eyes go a bit wide at that. "They'll know it's me?"

"By one name or another, yes. There might be a little confusion, but don't count on it lasting. And..." The younger Luna leaned down, kissing her gently on the forehead. "Mother asked me to pass that along. There's a hole in your mind now with your friend elsewhere, a rather bad one, but the hole in your heart is worse, and getting worse all the time. You'll join us some day, but please don't rush it. We'll be here, waiting, and you can be my big sister and her daughter for as long as you like, when the time comes. You can be whatever age you like, then. Just be old, first, and try to heal."

---

Ginny Weasley's first year at Hogwarts, so far, was a mixed success at best. She'd been sorted into Gryffindor, thankfully, and her only real childhood friend had joined her much to Ginny's shock, but having tried to murder people was definitely putting a damper on things. She couldn't really remember much about it, just that Luna had somehow been trying to stop her, and that Harry Potter - her hero, her dream! - and his friends had been caught in the crossfire.

She felt rather incredibly guilty, in spite of the headmaster's assurances that she hadn't done anything wrong, that she was too weak to fight off a wizard like Tom had been. At least noone was killed, but Luna had been out for two solid weeks, and wasn't showing any signs of waking. Ginny had heard they were transferring her to a longer term care at St. Mungo's today, and she simply had to visit her friend before that happened.

Sneaking into the hospital wing, she made it behind the curtains surrounding Luna's bed, taking advantage of Madam Pomfrey being distracted by treating some victim of one of Fred and George's pranks. Ginny grasped her friend's hand, sighing.

"Luna, I don't know if you can hear me or not. But I wanted to thank you for helping save me." Ginny stood in silence for a few minutes, before, an impulse suddenly taking her, she leaned down to whisper in her friend's ear. "You're a great friend... Blood sisters, remember? And I love you like the sister I should've had instead of all those brothers, so.. wake up, please, Luna." And she kissed her friend, her foolishly Gryffindor friend, on the forehead.

That was when things got a little weird.

Ginny fell backward, clutching her head, a series of memories she didn't really understand flashing before her - what looked like, what she knew, were her and Luna in a progression of fights, working together in harmony. Luna seemed to do almost all of the killing, but Ginny was definitely holding her own in incapacitating. But Ginny couldn't understand the thoughts, or why she was having them...

And Luna woke up, doing something Ginny really, really found shocking from the the blond, distracting her from the strange thoughts.. Memories?.. She was weeping.

---

Bit of a short chapter, as I try to get back into writing. Hope it's interesting.


	9. Avoiding Punishment Through Crime

Hermione flexed her wand hand, staring down at it as she did. She hadn't yet grown used to having her own body again, much less that body being twelve. At least she'd managed to duck out of further questioning from the headmaster; she had never regretted just not having the time for mental defences as much as she did now.

Being back in classes was a dream come true for her. So why couldn't she pay attention instead of going back in the same old circles?

"And there I was, dueling with a Vampire Queen and her hideous hag servants!"

Oh. Right. Hermione didn't have the mentality Luna did - Hermione was a little terrified of and for her friend, in fact, in that regard - but she could certainly do without Lockhart wasting a full year of instruction. And having to sit here after getting the word from Ginny the night before that Luna had actually woken was not something calculated to make the Gryffindor happy, but Ginny had also told her that they weren't allowing visitors again now that she was awake until they could do a more complete examination.

Hermione rather hoped it was just a physical one. A mental evaluation had a lot of possible outcomes, but almost none of them were good. Hermione could carry on the work now, of course, and she believed manage it in more subtle and probably less bloody ways, but she was still worried about her friend.

"Honestly." She muttered to herself, watching now as Lockhart forced Harry to play as the Queen, with Ron putting in a rare acting role as one of the hags. "What COULD I have been thinking when I sent that man a valentine the first time?"

* * *

Severus Snape was tired of dealing with Gryffindors. In fairness, he was almost always tired of dealing with Gryffindors, but the first year Albus had sent him to interrogate had worn out her welcome faster than any other, not counting Potter. Dumbledore had wanted him to take a try at working mental magic on the girl, however, as she had been almost completely nonresponsive since waking up, and so he was now waiting on the blond to wake up, thanks to the potion he had used on her. He'd had to wait until Madam Pomfrey was out of the hospital wing, having a meeting with Dumbledore, insuring privacy.

He wasn't waiting long, and it would be easiest to access her deepest thoughts right as she woke up, before whatever natural defenses Albus had mentioned could become active. Albus had mentioned chaos beyond his capacity to handle, and there was quite a lot of that, but there was also a.. hole, perfectly calm. Severus couldn't imagine how Albus had missed that, but he placed himself in it, envisioning an avatar to limit himself to that space, then looking to see what he could find.

It looked completely barren; an absolute void within the mind. Some part that had been destroyed, possibly? This was not something normal, but the girl had always been a bit of a freak.

"You're not welcome here." A voice rang out, footsteps approaching ominously in spite of the complete lack of anything to walk on.

"Miss Lovegood, I assume? I was sent to pull you out of yourself, as much a waste of my talents as that is." Severus was impressed, however, in spite of himself - it wasn't everyone who could keep thoughts together to even speak with an intruder.

"You haven't the right..." And a crack rang through the area, as a woman appeared, messy blond hair to her waist. She looked to be in her twenties, and Severus was immediately on his guard. This wasn't Miss Lovegood, clearly. The woman continued, speaking. "But then, we hadn't the right, either. We should have just gone on, instead of going back and taking what wasn't ours... Too late, now."

"Who are you?" Snape asked, resisting the urge to flex his mental muscles at the woman. She had home pitch, after all. "What did you take from Miss Lovegood?"

"Everything, but she would have given it to me anyway. She isn't the one I regret most. You aren't welcome here." She repeated suddenly, looking Snape in the eyes for the first time. That was when Severus realized he was mistaken - her eyes were completely mad, but this was most definitely Lovegood. And.. he felt the heat rising just in time, pulling himself out of her mind just before the flames could hit.

He stumbled back from Lovegood's bed in shock, drawing his wand and aiming it at the girl. "You're clearly under some sort of possession. You're going to have to come with me to have the headmaster and ministry deal with it."

Lovegood shut her eyes again for a moment, then opened them. "You're going to force me to sing, then? Threaten me, torture me more, put a nargle in my ear?"

"Just get up. I know you can walk; Pomfrey would have let you out of here a week ago if you weren't hiding in your own mind." Snape gestured with his wand, and the girl rolled out of bed...

And vanished with a soft pop.

Severus cursed loudly, not understanding - had she had a portkey? There was no way she could apparate in here... And then he stumbled forward once more as her weight fell on him from behind, her arms wrapped tightly around his neck and her legs around his waist. "Do exactly what I say, or I'll splinch your torso out." Her wispy voice said in his ear. "I'd rather not; it's quite messy, and the house elves would be upset."

* * *

Dumbledore cursed his method of allowing Severus to conduct the mental examination of Miss Lovegood. Madam Pomfrey was giving him quite an earful about budgetary concerns, and he couldn't brush them off the way that he normally did. At least the length of time undoubtedly meant that Severus would have a full report.

"Unfortunately, we can't keep antidotes to every possible accident on hand, my dear. I'll see what we can do about getting more in, but.. Ah, if you'll excuse me, I'm afraid I have a meeting scheduled with Severus about the NEWT Potions classes' progress." Dumbledore said with a smile. "And it sounds like he is on his way up."

Indeed, Severus was climbing into the office, though he seemed to be having some trouble. "Severus, are you alright?" asked the nurse, approaching him. "You walk like you're suffering from severe joint pain..." She reached out a hand, professional concern on her face, right up to the point where a red bolt shot out from Severus's back and hit her in the chest.

Albus stood up, anger on his face, as a blur appeared around Severus and then sharpened into the form of young Luna Lovegood. She had a wand out and pointed at Pomfrey, a dreamy expression on her face. "Just what are you doing?"

"She couldn't know. You shouldn't know, but I no longer have a choice.. And don't even think about moving against me, headmaster, or I'll have to take very drastic action against your friend here." Luna wasn't pointing the wand at Snape, but Severus didn't seem to be fighting, either. "I want to stay at Hogwarts, and I want my wand back even if that's not possible."

Severus spoke up at that, sneering. "What makes you think there's any chance you'll stay at Hogwarts after attacking a Professor like this, girl? Much less if you do kill me?"

"After I tell you, I don't think the Headmaster will want me anywhere he doesn't know where I am," came the reply from the small girl. "Promise you'll listen without attacking and I'll let him go," Luna added. The headmaster nodded, and Luna released Severus, dropping lightly down onto her feet and rubbing at her legs. Severus turned to glare at the girl, holding out his hand.

"Oh, fine, but only because I don't need it to escape. And it's not a very good one for me; you must not have liked Transfiguration or Arithmancy much." Luna added, dropping the wand back in Snape's hands. "If it stops respecting you, you can just remind it that I would never be disloyal to my wand for something like it if I had a choice."

"You promised to tell us why you shouldn't be expelled. And arrested, for that matter, Miss Lovegood."

Luna smiled at that. "Oh, I did, didn't I? Well, I shouldn't be expelled because I don't want to lose my friends, and you don't want to lose sight of me. And I shouldn't be arrested because I really don't want to have to fight anyone who is probably on the side of right. Especially since against aurors, holding back would be a bad idea. But first... Professor Snape said you had my wand?"

Dumbledore nodded at that, pulling it out of a drawer and placing it on the desk. "And you will get it back when I decide that you shouldn't be expelled, or the pieces before I call the aurors"  
Luna looked at it, almost longingly. "Distrust is a sign of infestation by griblings, headmaster. You should watch out for that. Long term time travel isn't really possible." She added the last, thinking it explained everything.

"Of.. What?" Dumbledore said, lost by the non sequitor.

"Time travel over a long time isn't really possible. We've proven it, because if it were just time travel, there would be a paradox when it came time to send our younger selves back again because they're both dead." Luna seemed immune to the stares she was getting from the pair. "No, it's got to be traveling to a different time period in an alternate universe. Very slightly different; I haven't found the change yet. It's probably something totally irrelevant to me, like who won a quidditch game in the thirteen hundreds."

Dumbledore looked thoughtful, trying to decipher the mad girl's ravings. "You travelled here from a different time, then, with someone else? And, from what I can tell, you replaced your younger self, either in body or taking over her mind?"

"Oh, yes, Headmaster. Very good. And can you guess why?"

"Voldemort, then?" Snape flinched back at the name, but Luna herself seemed utterly unaffected.

"No. You're too focused on the worst symptom to see the problem; you're a good person, of course, but you don't see how many aren't. Voldemort is the figurehead; he's fierce, but removing him doesn't really solve the problem. I'm here to remove the corruption at the top of society before it gets a chance to bring open war."


	10. Friendly Hexes

Luna hmmed to herself, considering the look on the headmaster's face after she'd announced her intentions.

"Remove the corruption? I don't suppose you mean you're here to change some elections?" Dumbledore still wanted to hear of the most peaceful solution, clearly.

"That's a large part of it, yes. We shouldn't be run by vampires, after all; they don't have our best interests in mind." Luna nodded, not wanting to go further - telling him her full plans there would have dire consequences, though he could probably assume most of it. "And have you made other arrangements for Harry for the summer, to stop his family from killing him? Or started the freeing of Stubby Boardman?"

Dumbledore sighed at that, after mulling over the words. "Faking prophecy, Miss Lovegood?"

"There's no real prophecy as long as we don't go along with it. Even if there were, coming back broke it - just go ask a centaur about me, if you don't believe me. Though I'll thank you not to tell them that I'm here." Luna added, a rare frown on her face. "I've been told they'll want to kill me, and that could get messy. Anyway, it was the best way to get you doing the right thing, short of telling you. But then you went and left me no choice."

"And why should I allow you to remain at Hogwarts? You're quite clearly dangerous, and you also clearly know what we would teach you here."

Luna moved then, without warning, snatching her wand from the desk and holding it closely to her, like a long lost friend. Dumbledore had his own out and aimed at her even quicker than she'd expected; she wouldn't have been able to hex him before he could her even if she'd wanted to. "Because, headmaster.." She tucked the wand behind her ear, smiling again, seeming unconcerned about his aiming at her. "It gives you the chance to turn some of the less evil pureblood supremacists before I get the time to go kill them in their sleep."

"That's murder, Miss Lovegood." Dumbledore, as she'd expected, was not exactly approving of her plan. At least she hadn't told him about including the students who would go on to be on that side.

"Do you know how the Blibbering Humdinger protects its nest, Headmaster? It has to leave its hatchlings behind to hunt food, but if anything takes advantage, it devotes its life to tracking and killing the predator. The reputation saves most of the species. But I already know where those predators are. It's good to improve on nature, don't you think?" She tried to get her meaning across, frustrated now as the headmaster shook his head, completely ignoring Snape.

"I can't allow you to just kill people, Miss Lovegood. And since you admitted that you don't know what might be different between here and where you.. originated.. you cannot truly be certain of crimes. You're right that I can't expel you." Dumbledore whispered a charm, a purple bolt shooting out and hitting the witch, who was caught completely offguard, not expecting any aggressive action from the headmaster.

The blond recoiled, far too late to dodge the spell or apparate away. The spell.. tingled quite a bit. "What was that?" She asked, not recognizing the spell.

"A tracking charm, Miss Lovegood, in case you might feel tempted to sneak off grounds at some point. It will alert me the instant you try to leave school grounds, either through magical methods or through more mundane ones, and I will know if you remove it. And I do hope you'll tell me if you have key knowledge of another threat to my school, such as that basilisk?"

Luna rubbed at her chest, where the bolt had hit her, feeling the magic in her. It was a decidedly non-subtle tracker, one that might as well be screaming at her that it was there. "I already told you the ones you should worry about - there is nothing that can stop the approaching war except removing one side. And I trust, as I said, that you already know to try to get a trial for his godfather. What are you going to do with me over the summer? Father will get worried if I don't come home."

"That is many months away, still, and I'm sure some arrangement can be made. And... I hope by then to change your mind, so that you'll accept a more peaceful solution. I think we should have some further discussions." Dumbledore leaned forward, his eyes twinkling a bit as he cam to a decision. "Miss Lovegood, while I am not a mind healer, I do have some skill at that art. And you seem to be in desperate need of it. You are one of my students, someone who I am sworn to try and nurture. It's clear you've learned more than enough skill with magic to pass the first year's exams, though I'll let you sit them since friends will do you good. But killing is what made Voldemort into what he is; even doing it for the right reasons, it harms your soul. You need to learn to heal yours."

Luna stared at the headmaster, completely without any idea of how to respond to that while Snape snorted derisively.

* * *

Ginny Weasley was not having a great year, memory-wise. She was still missing large chunks of her life since the day she'd gotten that damn diary, chunks she wasn't sure she really wanted back from having heard about what she'd done. Hermione had nearly died, from what she had heard, if Ginny's magical core had been even a little more developed.

And now she had those gaps filled with completely insane memories of herself - but they were all from the outside, like they were someone else's, and they didn't make any sense. She tried not to think about them too much, but they seeped in at the worst times.

Ginny clenched her fists, angry at herself again. It wasn't really the time to think about it. She had tried to visit Luna again only to find her friend gone, with Madam Pomfrey nowhere in sight either. That wasn't necessarily bad; it wouldn't really surprise Ginny if Luna had drifted out of the hospital wing while Madam Pomfrey was on dinner break.

It left Ginny without much to do, though, and the redhead was now feeling rather horribly lost. She had given up on finding her way to anywhere in particular, and was now wondering an unfamiliar hallway trying to find anywhere at all she recognized, when she heard voices from ahead.

"Honestly, Luna, I don't think that's the answer. And I know you're upset about it, but we still shouldn't discuss it in public, no matter how few people come to this part of the castle."

"It's one of the few areas with no portraits and no armor, Hermione.. And I just need you to handle this one. You know I hate to ask, but he's..." Hermione and Luna? Ginny stepped forward, confused by the conversation, but Luna or Hermione must have heard, as they both stuck their heads out from around a corner. "Oh, Ginny!" Luna said, loudly, "Have you kept your hair pure since your problems? A few sunflowers are a great ward..."

Ginny smiled at that, mostly to hide her grimace, but said "I'm afraid I don't have any sunflowers, Luna. Ah.." She didn't really want to admit to trying to eavesdrop. "I'm also a little lost." She said, shrugging her shoulders. "I was always able to find my way around, before, but I can't remember any of how to get from one place to another now. So.. did they actually let you out of the hospital wing, Luna, or did you just walk out?"

Hermione gave Luna a Look at that. "Walk out? You didn't actually do that, did you? It's important to stay healthy, and part of that is obeying nurses' and doctor's orders."

Luna gave a smile, saying "Don't worry, I had permission to return to a mostly normal schedule. I do get to get out of flying, thankfully."

Ginny gave Luna an uncomprehending look, asking "You don't like to fly?"

Luna shook her head, as did Hermione.

"I don't really like heights." The brown-haired girl admitted when Ginny gave her a look.

Ginny grinned at that. "But it's so exciting. You just haven't been taught to enjoy it.. Have you two had dinner yet? Come on, lead the way, I can try and convince you to give it a go after we get some food."

* * *

_Weeks Later:_

Hermione smiled as she watched Luna and Ginny having a discussion over charms, with Luna trying to get across some rather advanced ideas in more simplistic terms.

"You see, there's three parts of it. Power, desire, technique. You can't do much about power, but you're here so you have enough for what's taught for certain. Then, wanting is as important as knowing, but you still have to know. You can't just wiggle your wand and hope for the best, but needing it matters, too. The less difficult the spell, the less you need. Some require a lot more of one or another; a patronus is all about desire, while something like apparation is equally desire and technique." Luna was clearly enjoying letting her Ravenclaw side show, but Ginny looked a little dazed.

"So when I was having trouble earlier..?"

"It was technique. That's most of what you learn, because it starts out way behind the others."

Ron, who was sitting across from her, looked up from his food and down the table at the pair. "Can't you at least not study at dinner? It's important to take breaks, you know!"

At least he wasn't giving Ginny and Luna irate looks about sitting with them anymore, Hermione thought. Besides, Ginny was eating a healthy amount, and Luna had never done more than graze in all the time Hermione had known her.

Harry, on the other hand, had been more subtle about his discomfort with the first years, but still seemed a little on edge around them. And her, in fact, probably due to whatever parts of her personality had changed plus his seeing her 'nearly' die. She hadn't been pushing them to study as much as she would have then - in fact, she should have been stuck in the hospital wing due to bad polyjuice right now. It wasn't anything obvious, but she thought Harry suspected something, and he tended to have bulldog tenacity about things that didn't quite add up.

That was another argument with Luna, though, in addition to the witch's repeated requests that Hermione take care of Lucius Malfoy, since Dumbledore knew Luna's secret and had a tracker on her. Luna distinctly did not want to tell their friends about what had happened, in spite of everything, where Hermione thought they owed it to them. Still, she wasn't going to unilaterally make a decision like that; she just needed to convince her friend that they needed to be honest.

She turned her head back from her plate towards the first years, opening her mouth to speak and being a little stunned. Luna was giving Ginny a demonstration of proper banishing and summoning charms, which were fourth year material - did she have no sense of secrecy at all?

"Hey, where'd you learn that? We haven't gone over that yet." Harry'd noticed, and he was curious - probably he saw a use for the spells.

Luna looked up, considering her answer, then saying in her more dreamy voice, "There was an accident a few years ago. My mother, who was rather a remarkable witch, was killed while developing a potion meant to assist in transferring spell technique knowledge between adult witches and wizards. I was there, and the potion soaked me. It's why I have the occasional meetings with Dumbledore, now."

Hermione looked at Luna in surprise, not having been consulted about this story, but it made an acceptable cover for the truth if she was going to insist on not hiding her abilities. It was even at least partly true, after all. Harry looked rather devastated by it, and it was certainly going to cut off questions. "I.. I'm sorry." He said, fumbling for words.

Luna looked rather more unfocused than normal. "Don't worry. I'll see her again, eventually. Those who love us never leave forever; they just get ahead of us, sometimes."

There was a bit of an awkward silence at that, before Luna returned to trying to tutor Ginny.

* * *

AN: Dumbledore's tricky like that. In any case, time will likely advance rather rapidly over the next chapter or two (even more than usual for me) as Luna's watched rather carefully, and as things fall into a routine. As for why she doesn't just break the charm (which Dumbledore intentionally left as an option) and strike out on her own, Luna, even if she won't admit it, rather desperately needs to be with friends and to regain some measure of acceptance.

Next chapter we should have the first actual appearance of Sirius, for those of you who've been looking forward to that.


	11. Starlight

Luna was not very fond of her private sessions with Dumbledore. She had to try and convince him of certain actions to take; he was forbidding her from making unilateral (and generally permanent) actions and trying to get information from her she wasn't inclined to share. It was all very stressful; she wasn't used to anyone questioning the necessity of what she did. Dumbledore accepted her assertion that the wizarding world was on the brink of war. He even accepted her belief that Voldemort was only part of the problem, and not even the biggest part. But he wouldn't accept that preemptively striking was the best way to win it, believing he could work in influence and politics to do what Luna could not.

Luna did believe that if it came to an open battle, she could try to keep Harry safe (from things that weren't Voldemort, anyway) and his reputation would likely keep the war at bay if he killed Voldemort. That did not really strike her as the optimal solution, though.

Still, there were things they could agree on; once he'd learned that Sirius Black was an innocent man, he'd agreed that they needed to get him out of prison. They needed some sort of plausible story, however, and that meant they had to get someone to realize that the rat couldn't actually be a rat - a story that would stand up in court without either Luna or Dumbledore needing to testify. Luna thought the best setup would be to get Ronald or Ginny to get one of the other professors to cast a detection charm on the rat.

It was a Saturday, and Luna was sitting with the group, when she got the opportunity. She was having a discussion with Ginny (about hair, of all things; Ginny thought it was unwise for Luna to use her wand to keep her hair up) when 'Scabbers' crawled up onto the table.

"Oh, your rat might get your food." Luna cut across Ginny's talking, gesturing at the rat, which paused guiltily.

"Scabbers! Stop that!" Ronald said, grabbing his rat. "It's weird, I almost never see him down here at dinner."

"Scabbers? Did you name it after your brother's old rat?" Luna asked.

"It is Percy's old rat." Ronald grumbled, as he held onto Scabbers.

Luna tilted her head. "Really? He must be magical, somehow. Rats only live a year or two otherwise. Have you thought about seeing just what he is? I'm sure Professor Flitwick or McGonagall could tell you. I bet you a galleon he's secretly a Dancing Mouse."

"He is not!"

Luna shrugged and pointed to the head table. "Well, go see, then. If I'm wrong, I'll give you a galleon." It might be a little bit cheating, but she should be distant enough to not have to testify, or at least enough that she could seem justified in her suspicion.

Ronald rolled his eyes, as Scabbers started to squirm in his hands. Still, he kept a firm grip as he headed over to the headtable, talking to Professor Flitwick.

Ginny sighed a little. "He's going to hound you for that now, you know, if you're wrong. Hey, have you started the Potions essay yet?"

"Finished it last night." Luna said, tracking the action with her eyes as Flitwick cast the spell and a look of confusion came over the small man's face.

"It was just assiged yesterday! Sometimes I think you should have been in Ravenclaw, Luna. What's going on there?!?" Ginny said, suddenly distracted by Scabbers turning into a rather ugly man after a charm of Flitwick's, knocking Ronald to the ground and standing on him before being Stunned by Professor Flitwick, Snape, and McGonagall at the same time.

"I.. think I lost my bet." Luna said with a smile, as noise spread through the hall.

* * *

Luna had stayed rather distant from things after that, not wanting to get too involved. She'd offered Harry congratulations when his Godfather had taken custody of him officially, but aside from that hadn't taken too much part in the discussion of events. She was happy for him, of course; she'd heard from Hermione what his home life was really like.

She was a little more concerned, as the year drew to a close, about what Dumbledore was going to do with her. He could undoubtedly confuse her father to agree to something or other, and she didn't believe for a moment that she'd be allowed loose - even with the tracker, she could cut loose in ways Dumbledore would not appreciate.

Luna was sitting on the edge of the lake, her feet in it, looking up at the sky. Exams had gone swimmingly, of course; her cover story had made the rounds and she was no longer making any effort at holding herself back. Aside from her worry about the future, the last few months had been one of the most peaceful times of her entire life.

She was supposed to have another meeting with Dumbledore later that day - less than half an hour, in fact, and he'd presumably tell her what she would be doing.

Luna heard the whir of the arrow before the impact, starting to roll aside when it connected, piercing her thigh. She cried out in surprise and pain, but managed to roll over to facing the direction the arrow had come from, spotting a group of three centaurs in that direction. Luna had not expected them to leave the Forest to find her; clearly that was a mistake. She needed to distract them long enough to stand or twist to apparate away...

With a single quick gesture, Luna pulled her wand through her hair, whipping it forward, slicing and transfiguring her hair to hold in spiky, hard forms, banishing them towards the centaurs. The one that had already fired at her was hit by several of them, dropping. The other two, however, fired more arrows at her; she banished one of them and used a shield charm to knock the other away. The centaurs, their ambush having failed, grabbed the injured one and dragged him away; they would be worried about conclusive proof of attacking a witch, Luna decided.

Or possibly they thought their job was done. Luna's leg felt like it was on fire; the wound was bad, but this was beyond that. Luna pulled the arrow that she had deflected out of the ground and sniffed at it. It was definitely poisoned.

She'd have to take the chance Dumbledore could help her; she managed to struggle to her feet after a great effort and twist enough to apparate, although with a much louder pop than normal, black appearing along the edges of her vision as she appeared in the headmaster's office.

"Help." Luna said desperately, stumbling forward into his desk, not even noticing the man and boy who had had the appointment before her as she passed out onto it.

* * *

Sirius Black was having the best year of his life. Or the best year he could remember currently, anyway. He was told that the happy memories would gradually come back as he managed time without exposure to the Dementors. But he would gladly take his current joy. He even managed to avoid being bitter a good five or ten percent of the time.

Right now, though, he was finally getting to meet his godson in person after several exchanged letters, even if it was just a meeting with Dumbledore included to introduce himself in person and arrange taking over his magical guardianship. "Hello, Harry." He said with a wild smile as the black haired boy - James to the smallest detail, aside from the eyes - offered a slighter smile and took the other chair in front of Dumbledore's desk.

The meeting's contents were actually fairly dull. It was mostly paperwork they both had to fill out, though he also got the story of Harry's adventures from Dumbledore, much to his concern. He was just getting filled in on the events with a basilisk earlier in the year when a loud crack rippled through the room, the sound of apparation. Which was impossible, since he full well knew that apparation didn't work in Hogwarts. In spite of that, a blond girl (who couldn't have been more than a second year at the oldest!) had appeared and fallen onto the headmaster's desk. "Luna!" Harry had cried in surprise, and Sirius recognized the name as the girl whose bet with Ronald Weasley had exposed Pettigrew.

Dumbledore moved rapidly, taking an arrow out of the girl's hands after that, adjusting her on the desk to lay her out better. Sniffing at the arrow, he said "Sirius, quickly. There is a small supply of beazor stones in my cabinet. Harry, you may want to look away." Dumbledore was using his wand to wordlessly extract an arrow from the girl's leg, cutting as little at the flesh as he could before magically dressing the wound. Sirius came back with the beazor, and Dumbledore administered it to the witch, sighing. "She should recover from that, relatively quickly. I would not want to get Madam Pomfrey involved, as well." He admitted, looking Sirius over appraisingly.

"Not get Madam Pomfrey involved, Dumbledore? She was attacked, probably by centaurs judging by the method, and you're going to hush it up?" Sirius said, outraged by the idea.

"Sirius, there are issues.." Dumbledore looked distant for a moment. "I was planning on this conversation being with Arthur Weasley, but I suppose you two will work as well. She won't like it, but she'll prefer it to having you obliviated, and I see no half-truth that would work in this case."

"What do you mean, Sir?" Harry asked, confusion evident on his face.

Dumbledore smiled at Harry. "I need your word that you will keep this to yourself. Even from Miss Granger and Mister Weasley, until Luna is ready to tell them."

Harry looked hesitant, but then looked at Luna and nodded. "You have it."

"Miss Lovegood is not as young as she looks. There are legendary rituals that will supposedly allow you to travel through time, in various ways, to alter the past.." Dumbledore hesitated here, ignoring the looks of disbelief on Sirius and Harry's faces. "Though I'll note that she claims that that is a lie, and that after arriving she found that instead she had effectively unintentionally murdered the spirit of the version of her that was native to this reality, in case either of you are tempted."

Harry gave Luna another look, stunned. She was beginning to regain a little bit of color. "You can't mean that, can you? You're saying she's.. some sort of impostor?"

"She's your friend. She came back intending to save her friends; from what I've gotten from her, Luna and her world's Hermione Granger were the only survivors, and Hermione sacrificed herself casting the spell to send Luna back to her most emotionally painful moment, the death of her mother."

Dumbledore went on, describing what he knew of her actions since returning, before concluding, "The problem is that Luna was taught to kill, and she seems to have done it for a long span of time with a great deal of skill. She needs to be watched, and to be taught other things, to be reminded what friendship and love are and just how powerful they can be. I was going to have her stay with the Weasleys for the summer, as I said; Xeno Lovegood is taking an expedition to South America for the summer without her. However, since you've seen enough and I've been compelled to explain, if you two are willing, you might be a better option for several reasons."

Sirius sighed at that, considering. He'd really wanted time with Harry, alone, to try and make up for the time lost to prison. "Why would centaurs attack her, then, Dumbledore?" He asked, realizing there had been no explanation for that.

Dumbledore grimaced. "Luna knew they were after her; she had me ask them about her as evidence when she told me her history. Not just centaurs, but any creature or person with an affinity for divination is likely to want her dead. The presence of someone like her in the world is enough to render all prophecies and scrying invalid, with one exception: they can successfully see the name and an image of the disruption. In many cases, they'll feel duty-bound to remove it."

Sirius nodded at that, thoughtfully. "I'll take her for the summer, then, Dumbledore. I'm sure she can tell me further details."

----------------

AN: It's not really polite to pass stories. Remember that if you ever travel in time - don't tell anyone who might tell someone else.


	12. Now We Grieve

AN: I'd like to thank those reviewing every chapter (praypray and Nercia Genisis in particular, but also those who reviewed before my hiatus) - I know I'm not big on responding to it, but I do appreciate them.

Also, I'd like to note that all narrators are unreliable - Luna believes it to be an alternate universe (and has good logic for it) but she may or may not be right, for example.

* * *

Hermione frowned at Ginny. "You haven't seen Luna since your last exam yesterday?" She asked, wanting to make certain she had the story right. "I hope she's alright; we should ask one of the professors, though." Hermione didn't really want to draw attention to it if Luna had decided to go rogue after all, but she had a hard time believing that the blond would choose this timing.

Harry interrupted, though, having caught the tail end of their conversation as he'd approached. "Luna was injured in an accident near the forbidden forest; she's already been taken away from school for the summer instead of riding back on the train because of it. It was during my meeting with Sirius; Dumbledore asked Sirius to take her for the summer, since her father was out of the country." Hermione looked at Harry, then looked again - he had the expression on his face that meant he was holding something back from them.

Ginny looked more than a little surprised. "I wonder why he didn't ask Mum and Dad to? Luna's a friend of the family, we'd have been glad to do it."

"I think it had something to do with her being part of Sirius being freed. I'm not really sure. Besides, there's a lot of healers that are treating him for things that happened while he was locked up; they'll be able to look at her leg, too." Harry shrugged, adding "I'll find out more once I get home. Anyway, it's not like the Dursleys - we'll be able to floo back and forth and see each other the whole summer, I expect."

Ginny nodded, smiling and not meeting Harry's eyes. At least she was showing some improvement from Luna and Hermione dragging her into their group, Hermione thought. "Good; I'm worried about her, now. It must be pretty serious to take her away from school early."

Hermione hmmed to herself. "Well, I'm sure they'll have a nice welcome home planned for you. Pass along my best wishes? I'm going to be on vacation with my family much of the summer."

Ginny nodded, and Harry agreed to it, still looking a little distant.

* * *

Luna was not used to waking up in completely unfamiliar places; and she was covered in sweat as she sat up, her leg throbbing. She moved her arm over her forehead, noting in surprise that she was in a white nightgown. Her hair wasn't quite right, either...

"Oh, right.. I used it." She murmured to herself. Well, she'd done that trick often enough in the past; five minutes with her wand and a mirror could set that right. For now, it was unevenly sliced; about to her shoulder blade on one side, halfway down her neck on the other.

"Used what?" A voice echoed across the room, and Luna vaguely looked in that direction. Sirius Black approached her bed from a distance further than she would have expected, giving his having heard her, but then, he was a dog animagus. Sharp ears were to be expected.

Luna shook her head. "A trick I knew, but it cost me a lot of my hair. Ah, where am I?"

"Oh, my new home. A nice little place in the middle of nowhere; I intend to value my privacy. Harry's, too." Sirius said. "Now, I suppose I might as well tell you that Dumbledore told me your.. history, shall we say? Both Harry and me." Luna's look sharpened at that, not having expected him to do that in her wildest nightmares.

"He shouldn't have done that.. Why did he do that?" She asked, not understanding.

"You apparated into our meeting with him. Something I want to know how you did, sometime. And we helped him save your life, but you're still going to be weak for the next week or two. Dumbledore used a beazor to neutralize the poison on that arrow, but he said we couldn't use any potions for your leg or we'd risk overloading your system." Sirius leaned forward. "I'm wondering how much that's true, and how much it's to keep you from really moving, given how you arrived."

Luna shut her eyes, shifting to lean against the headrest as she sat back, trying to concentrate. "I suppose Dumbledore wants you to get more information from me?"

"That, and I'd like to know exactly why Dumbledore thinks you might go on a Death Eater killing spree." Sirius took a seat in a chair, staring at her. "Not that I truly expect him to leave us to our own devices all summer; he insisted on doing the wards here himself. Harry isn't here yet, you were only attacked yesterday." He added as Luna looked questioningly at the door.

"I didn't want to ever tell anyone, and now Harry knows. And I wanted him to know less than anyone... I never knew you, before." Luna finally admitted, with a shrug. "And I'm sorry that I didn't get you out sooner, but there's so much to do... And I'm forbidden from doing the parts that will help the most, now."

Sirius sighed as he stood back up, moving closer and looking down at her, not unkindly. "Look, we... You know during a war, some people are asked to carry more of that burden than others. I was one of the ones when Voldemort first rose, though Dumbledore said he had the impression that yours was worse. Ours was bad enough, and killing was not something I liked doing, but I liked it more than the thought of James or Lily doing it. But every time, you pay a price, too. Killing was easy, but after? I killed eight people during the war, all scum, and those memories are still with me even after the dementors. But talking about it does help. Do you still remember enough to? You need to try, Dumbledore thinks, and he's not wrong there."

Luna looked up, speaking in a ghostly tone. "Eighty five.. 'scum', you called them? And I'd splinter myself a thousand more times to try to spare everyone else. But there were others.."

Her eyes weren't focusing very well. She shouldn't be talking this much.. Was it the pain, or something they'd given her after all, besides the beazor? "Who were they?" Sirius's voice said, sounding like a growl to her.

Luna said, her voice fading, now only barely about a whisper, unable to hold it in any longer. "Promise me you won't tell Dumbledore. I'll take your word, as Harry's guardian." At Sirius' reluctant nod, she went on. "Ronald Weasley. He was.. missing, thought dead, when the last of us fought. He was in robes and I didn't know who he was, under imperious. This world's Luna Lovegood; she was killed when I came back. I didn't know it would happen, but.." She shrugged helplessly, the anger at herself since she'd spoken with a girl she missed being and had destroyed forever showing. "And.. Don't tell Harry, either. This world's Hermione Granger."

There were more questions, but Luna couldn't understand them anymore, and she curled up as tightly as she could. Eventually, a blanket was placed over her, and she thought she heard footsteps.

* * *

Harry Potter had spent a lot of time since finding out he was a wizard being confused. Noone ever really bothered to explain things to him; he just kind of picked them up as he went along. But he was pretty certain what he'd found out from Dumbledore about Luna was unusual even for the wizarding world; Sirius had been rather astonished, anyway.

And Sirius was something else. Harry had found himself looking forward to summer for the first time, cheered by the thought of never again seeing the Dursleys. Now he was just a little worried about it; he had no idea how he was going to deal with the incredibly odd blond witch.

But he had better come up with something quick. Harry was getting off the train now, and Sirius would be waiting.

"Anyway, Harry, it'll be great to be just a floo call away all summer, won't it?" Ron said, looking away from his conversation with Hermione, who hadn't even been after them to set study schedules since the basilisk incident.

"Oh, right, Ron." Harry said distractedly, hearing Sirius call his name and turning that way. "Oh, there he is; come on, and I'll introduce him to the two of you."

Harry lead his friends over to the shaggy-haired man - who most of the crowd was keeping a distance from - and smiled. "Sirius! I'd like you to meet my two best friends, Ronald Weasley and Hermione Granger."

Sirius smiled at that, saying "Of course I recognize a Weasley.." And then, he turned to Hermione, looking her over rather more thoroughly. "..And it's nice to meet you, too. I believe we're keeping another friend of yours for the summer, if Harry hasn't told you. Luna Lovegood." Sirius kept his eyes on Hermione during this, which Harry found a little odd.

"Oh, you're keeping Loony?" Ron said, not meaning it entirely unkindly.

"Ron, don't call her that!" Hermione said angrily, turning away from Sirius' gaze to go back to arguing with the redhead. Harry offered them a smile before Sirius put a hand on his shoulders, apparating him away with a wave to the distracted pair.

Harry did not like the feel of apparition - in fact, other than flying, he was quickly coming to hate all magical transportation - and shook his head a bit as they appeared outside of a house.

"How are you holding up, Harry?" Sirius asked, now that they had the privacy he'd wanted to talk.

"I'm still confused." Harry said, however reluctant he was to admit it. "She's strange, but she always seemed to be nice. Certainly not like what Dumbledore said."

Sirius laughed. "Well, she is nice to us. But I think Dumbledore may have made a few mistakes about her, and you deserve to know them after what I've heard from her. First, she might be a little bit insane, but I think she's very devoted to making certain her friends - including you - don't have to suffer through another war.. And second, Dumbledore was mistaken when he thought I wouldn't agree with her methods." Sirius said with a grin, leading Harry into the house.

* * *

Luna had had rather a better summer than she'd expected to, so far. She'd been unable to walk particularly well for a few weeks, and the arrow had left a scar (she was starting her collection of those rather early this time), but she'd also been able to be around two people who seemed to like her in spite of knowing what she'd done. She'd had a talk with Harry the day he'd arrived, trying to explain herself, feeling she owed him of all people an explanation.

But Sirius was in many ways the better companion, with Harry still a little weary of her, and she felt she'd finally convinced him of something very important, something she'd failed at with Dumbledore and Hermione both.

She'd convinced him that Lucius Malfoy must die.


	13. Life Lessons

"You have to put the right thoughts behind it." Luna said, "And some people are better at it than others." Her own rabbit was at her feet, putting Luna in a better mood than normal. At least she still had happy memories left, after all. "You might not be able to do it until you really encounter a dementor, though, and hopefully that won't be ever."

She had spent the last few weeks trying desperately to teach Harry everything she could, just as a precaution, and getting Sirius back in practice as well. It had been going rather well, and Harry had been less moody about things since they'd started the lessons. Teaching was not something she was particularly good at, but Sirius was able to help most of the time.

Not in this case, though. Sirius couldn't cast a patronus anymore, if he'd ever been able to.

Harry just nodded at her reassurance, frustration showing in his eyes.

Luna sighed, slipping her wand behind her ear and sitting back on the floor, ignoring the chair Sirius had pointedly added to the study. "Let's call that it for the day. You look tired."

Harry grimaced. "After hearing about what's coming, and knowing we have another year of Lockhart to look forward to.."

Their owls had arrived two days earlier; Luna hadn't even thought about the fact that there was no actual reason for Lockhart to leave until she'd seen his books still on their list. They'd had to explain to Sirius why they were so upset about it.

Luna shook her head. "I know, but we can continue there, somehow. Or maybe the curse will somehow kick in." Luna was vaguely hopeful there - there actually was a curse, she knew, and it should have come into effect.

Luna's patronus faded, and she tilted her head a little. "I think I heard Sirius coming in." And Sirius did wander in, a huge grin on his face. That was likely a bad sign.

"What are you so happy about?" Harry asked, looking Sirius over.

"Oh, I just took care of one of your problems." Sirius said, not losing the grin. "I sent Witch Weekly and the Daily Prophet pictures of Lockhart."

"I don't really see how that helps, Sirius." Harry said, looking confused.

"That's because I didn't tell you that I'd dosed him with love potion for a goat before the pictures got taken. Got the idea because of some rumors surrounding Dumbledore's brother way back when."

Luna blinked at that, even as Harry made a face. "That is disgusting."

Sirius went on. "Anyway, we can see how it falls out. What did you two do? Still patronuses, or did you move on to apparation or something else even more ridiculously advanced?"

Luna shook her head. "Still patronuses. I don't think I could teach anyone how to apparate."

Harry looked her over, an odd expression on his face. "Really? I thought you said you were better at that than anything else."

"I am, but I never had to learn - the first time someone side-alonged me, I just knew how to do it. Of course, I was sixteen at the time; my mother had warned father that that was likely to happen." Luna hmmed to herself, considering. "And anyway, we should focus on things you might get a chance to use if things go bad at Hogwarts." Luna didn't want to let that happen, but with Harry knowing, anyway... Besides, the Harry who had been part of her small circle of beloved friends, the one she'd have gladly died for, had been the first to really teach her about defense and attacking, and the only one who hadn't been specifically training her to kill. She could gladly return the favor to his counterpart.

"Let's go over blocking spells again. It's more fun than being stuck on the Patronus." And Sirius could help, she noted, gesturing at him to start by attacking her.

* * *

Ginny felt herself edging through the forest behind a cabin, thorns scratching at her legs, her hair in front of her eyes. Blond hair. Next to her, even odder, was someone who she instinctively KNEW was herself, much older. "You think they're home?" She heard the other Ginny asking, a feral snarl under her voice.

She heard herself speak, in the dreamy tones that could only be Luna. "I know someone is... Get our wards up. If someone runs for it, you get them." There was a swirl of motion, then, and she found herself in a very nice living room, a fire crackling, a light lit.

There was a blond man in front of her, sitting in a large chair, about the same age as the other Ginny had been. "Loony." He sputtered, firing a hex... And there was another twist, and she had the man by his hair, tugging him halfway over the headrest.

"Draco. Where's your parents?" She twisted his hair, knocking his wand away with a wordless curse.

"N.. not here!" Draco snivelled, trying desperately to get loose. "I'm alone!"

Ginny felt herself hmming. "Shame. Of course, we have good reports that you were responsible for what happened to Susan Bones... So I think you'll make good bait."

Draco managed an act of desperation then, one she didn't anticipate, leaping over the chair and knocking her to the ground, the wind out of her as she was hit. By the time she got up, he was out the door, fleeing.

She stood up and twirled again, landing on her feet not far outside the door, seeing the other Ginny standing with her wand held forward as the door flew open. Luna raised her own wand, a blasting hex bursting out. It caught Draco just above Ginny's cutting curse, but either of them could have been lethal and the killing blow. Together, they made a gory mess.

The older Ginny fell to her knees, throwing up, and Ginny herself felt like doing the same. But she kept staring at the body, long past the point where it was sane to do do, before moving over to comfort the older Ginny.

"It's.. my first time killing somebody." The redhead said, tears in her eyes. "I thought it was Lucius for a second, and I just saw Harry..."

Luna nodded. "Mine, too. We need to get back home." Ginny couldn't hear it in her voice, but she felt the hitch in her throat, the desire to join Ginny in mourning the loss of that part of their innocence.

And, as there was another twirl, Ginny woke up screaming.

* * *

  
"Happy Birthday, Harry!" came the cheer, and Harry's smile was wide and genuine - for the first time, he was having a birthday party with all of his friends and those he thought of as family. Even Hermione had made it, along with the Weasleys, a friend of Sirius' (and his father's!) named Remus Lupin, and of course Sirius and Luna. Even Neville and Dean had managed to come.

Luna and Ginny were talking over in a corner, in rather serious looking whispers, Ginny looking strained. Time alone with Luna could do that, though, and Harry knew from Luna that Ginny had been her friend for a long time.

Hermione and Ron, on the other hand, seemed to be actually arguing over schoolwork. Nothing that surprising, though Harry hadn't seen that happen in a while - Hermione had backed off after they had been injured in the basilisk incident.

Harry moved over to try and join Luna and Ginny, hearing a snippet of Luna talking to the redhead. "...We'll talk more about it tomorrow, okay."

Harry looked questioningly at Luna, who smiled and ignored the look, standing up and tugging Ginny back over as well. "Happy birthday, Harry." She said, simply. "Ginny was just telling me about the most incredible dream..." And with that, Luna dragged Ginny over towards the refreshments, Harry shaking his head in confusion.

Before long it was time to open presents, and he received books and devices, a broomstick servicing kit from Hermione... They were a blur, later, but what he really remembered was the people and the joyous atmosphere.

* * *

  
"What do you mean, she's remembering?" Hermione demanded from Luna, as most of the rest of the partygoers flew about.

"I don't know how any more than you do, Hermione. But she described her dream, and it was definately how the mission where we killed Draco went." Luna said. "But she remembered it from my point of view, not hers...

Luna shrugged a little at that, laying back and watching as Harry and Ronald passed overhead. "Memories can be tricky, and she was touching me when I woke up after the coma. I might have thrown off some things that her mind's trying to use to fill the gaps from the diary."

Hermione sighed and nodded. "We don't have too long to talk, anyway; they'll get tired of it eventually. And Harry and Sirius might get suspicious of me."

Luna mmed, not looking at Hermione. "Sirius knows. I told him when he was questioning me, when I was still recovering from the arrow attack. But Harry doesn't, and neither does anyone else. I think we can trust him."

Hermione nodded, not happy but realizing there was nothing to be done about it now. "It's going to be a long year. Are you sure about not telling them about me?"

"The more people who know, the more risk some seer will try and kill you instead of me, or that the secret will get out in general. We've got what should be a quiet year ahead - we just need to try and train our friends to be safe, in case something does happen.

Luna felt a little guilty about misleading her friend, but Hermione was better off protected from what had to happen. That was the way things had ended up working in the war itself, after all.

* * *

AN: Luna's learning from Dumbledore; it just might not be the right lessons.


End file.
